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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29983746">Out of time and place: The Triwizard Tournament</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Dragontail/pseuds/White_Dragontail'>White_Dragontail</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>But it mostly brings problems, But without a plan, Canon-Typical Violence, European wizards and witches - Freeform, Gen, German Main Character, Ginny's year lacks canonical students, MC has unusual power, Not A Fix-It, Slytherins Being Slytherins, So I had to make them up, The Carrow Twins are basically OCs, Time Travel, Triwizard Tournament, no beta we die like men</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:41:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>49,970</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29983746</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/White_Dragontail/pseuds/White_Dragontail</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maggie was just trying to enjoy a summer vacation with her friend in Trier, when she was taken hostage by a dark wizard and then forcibly ripped out of her time, before ending up in Britain in 1994, a good twenty years before her time. </p><p>Armed with only her limited knowledge, a magical talent that so far only gives headaches and a shaky grasp on the English language, Maggie now has to find a way home, figure out what to do about the other time traveler, and somehow survive the school year.<br/>And hopefully do all that before the next wizarding war breaks out.<br/>If only certain Gryffindors weren't as noisy about Hogwarts' newest transfer.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. The Black Gate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi, my first published story here. This is one of my older WIPs, that I recently decided I wanted to finally write down.</p><p>English isn't my native language, though I do hope to have a better grasp on it then our Main Character does at first. Still, there may be some mistakes or clunky sentences left in.</p><p>I'm posting the first two chapters quickly, but want to go to a weekly or bi weekly schedule afterwards. (We'll reach Hogwarts in Chapter 4.)</p><p>TWs: There are some lines about a witch burning (nothing too graphic) towards the middle, and a bit of manhandling of the MC by the villain at the end.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Roman Bridge stretched over the lazy river, that glistened in the harsh summer sun. This was an old bridge. Almost as old as the city sitting there across the Moselle, blocky buildings and gray roofs with a tamed forest of city trees growing in between.</p><p>Maggie wasn’t wearing the gloves her mother had given her. It was a risk, but the summer heat was unbearable with them. She stared across the bridge, cars moving past her, and stepped out of the shadow. Monika had told her to meet her here. </p><p>‘I’ll pick you up on the Old Bridge.’ she had said before they had to say goodbye a month ago. And this was clearly the oldest bridge in the city. Maybe even the country. It had to be this one.</p><p>But so far, her friend hadn’t shown herself. </p><p>Maggie checked her watch again. Five minutes late. Her legs were getting tired, and the sun was grilling the crown of her head.</p><p>Maybe her friend had meant the other side of the bridge? She strained her eyes, but didn’t make out anyone across the river that could be her friend. She sighed and started walking. They would have to cross anyway, right?</p><p>Her feet felt hot in her shoes, only the wind from passing cars that caressed her legs offering a slight reprieve. Stupid heat. She watched the water glistening below, and felt almost tempted to just jump in to river for a moment. A nice idea. But one she knew she would regret sooner than later.</p><p>She had just crossed the middle of the bridge when she was startled by a voice.</p><p>“There you are.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes and turned around.</p><p>Monika was standing there, as if she had appeared out of thin air.</p><p>“I still don’t get how you do that,” Maggie said, before giving her friend a quick hug, before a thought occurred to her. “Wait. Don’t tell me you made me wait five minutes in the sun just so you could do this.”</p><p>Monika smirked, shrugged and walked past her. “Come on, I’ve got a lot to show you, and the day is short. Unless you don’t want the tour anymore.”</p><p>Maggie shook her head, but followed her friend. </p><p>“You better make up for that.”</p><p>-<br/>
The city of Trier was old, and proud of its title as the oldest city in Germany. And while most of that history was openly seen in its architecture, Roman ruins and medieval buildings, another part of it had been kept hidden from the larger public for many centuries. The part that was magical.</p><p>The muggles believed the city to be just over two thousand years old, founded by Romans during their conquest of Northern Europe. And they had built many of the buildings and streets still standing, yes. But the magical community knew it to be a lot older, older than the empire that build the city wall, twice as old as the muggle historians wanted to believe, then called by a different name, but still the same place, the same people, the same city.</p><p>The magic here was just as old, wizards and witches living here long before the word witch was even invented, long before the magical and mundane had been forcefully separated by prejudice and violence into two worlds.</p><p>The mages had been here first, before the Romans, before Frankish Kings and Viking Raids and Emperors and Witch Hunts. This was their ancestral home, and they had stayed here through all hardships. Through it’s storied history, Trier had remained a center of magical culture for many millennia and the city was filled with countless stories from its long life.</p><p>Sadly, the thirteen year old witch wasn’t in the right mood to appreciate all that history right now. She was more interested in the ice cream that her friend had bought her as an apology for making her wait in the sun, while she led her through the city and pointed out a few of the more interesting places.</p><p>Enjoying the frozen treat, they passed a small church with Monika catching her up on everything that had happened since they said goodbye at the dock, before getting on the boat at the end of the school year. Living in one of the bigger magical communities, her friend was always good at bringing her stories from the magical world.</p><p>They walked over a paved street, through a corridor of buildings that were a wild mix of old and new, as Maggie complained about her mother’s fussing. Despite being a witch herself, her mother wasn’t very fond of the magical world and it had taken much to convince her to even let Maggie come here. One of the conditions had been the historical tour, which made the visit ‘educational’.</p><p>They reached the market-square, a plaza with a big, square tower on one side that looked almost like it should belong to a fairy tale castle, a water fountain in the middle and another tower just peaking past the roofs on her left. The place was currently mostly empty, with a few tourists moseying about.</p><p>Passing to another street, Maggie spotted another peculiar building, that couldn’t have been more different from the tower at the square. This second tower stood without much decoration, like a big gray brick that someone had carved small windows into and put a roof on, and then unceremoniously plopped onto a plot of land in the middle of the city. </p><p>Still, it caught Maggie’s eyes for some reason.</p><p>“The Frankenturm,” Monika said, seeing Maggie’s look. “Rumour says our government is hiding something secret in there.” She bit into the ice cream cone.</p><p>Maggie took another look at the building. </p><p>“In there? Wouldn’t the muggles find it then? I thought it was some kind of tourist attraction.”</p><p>“Obviously they hiding it with magic and a secret door. I haven’t found anything the few times I’ve looked, but they wouldn’t tell us not to go there if there wasn’t anything to find, right?”</p><p>“Well, what is the official story?”</p><p>Maggie took another lick of the now diminished scoop of ice cream.</p><p>Monika rolled her eyes.</p><p>“That it’s a tourist attraction and that we aren’t supposed to draw attention to ourselves.”</p><p>Maggie looked at her friend, who was currently wearing a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Witch, please!’, a yellow wool cloak and a cheap looking witch-hat, that probably belonged to some carnival costume.</p><p>“You’re clearly an expert on that.” </p><p>Monika grinned and adjusted her hat.</p><p>“Forget about that boring tower. I’ve got something much better to show you.”</p><p>Maggie nodded, giving the gray building a last look and followed after her friend.</p><p>-<br/>
Monika led her to a small café tucked under a round arch of red stones. At first glance, nothing seemed unusual about it – groups of small tables that seemed to have been abandoned, a glass door with the name and opening hours printed on in white lettering, a few paintings decorating the walls inside. All very normal. It didn’t have many patrons, but that could have just been the location. Still, if it got her out of the unrelenting sun, Maggie wouldn’t complain. </p><p> They stepped through into the building, and at second glance, the guests did look a bit more eccentric then most of the tourist Maggie had run into outside.</p><p>A woman with a whole stuffed bird fastened to her hat. A man reading a newspaper in Latin. A couple dressed in sweeping cloaks that looked way too stuffy for the summer heat.</p><p>Monika stepped towards the counter, were a middle aged women was rearranging some pastries behind the glass, before looking up at her potential patrons, recognition on her face.</p><p>“You’re still wearing that stupid hat, Monika?” She didn’t look amused.</p><p>“There’s no law against it, Mrs. Schweiger, I checked it. This is all bona fide Muggle clothing.”</p><p>She pulled Maggie to the front.</p><p>“This is Maggie. She’s visiting for a few days.”</p><p>“Your friend from school?” The woman looked at her appraisingly.</p><p>Monika nodded.</p><p>“Well, if you want to use the backdoor, I’m gonna need you to take off this hat.”</p><p>Monika shrugged, and took of the hat, before quickly setting it onto her friends head instead.</p><p>Not missing a beat, Maggie, took off the hat and put into the woman’s hand, who didn’t looked pleased with Monika’s antics.</p><p>“Thank you. This way, I’ll unlock the door for you.”</p><p>Monika looked aghast.</p><p>“Traitor.”</p><p>“What? You said we didn’t have all day,” Maggie smirked and followed the woman she assumed to be a witch.</p><p>They didn’t walk far, just through three doors and down a staircase, before the woman stopped in front of an old oak door.</p><p>“You’ve got your wands? Sorry, but I have to ask, part of the law.”</p><p>Maggie nodded, and shrugged off her backpack, to fish out a long piece of dark wood. Her friend already had hers in hand, but her eyes were trained on the confiscated hat.</p><p>“Good.” </p><p>With a flick of her wrist the woman also had her wand in hand. She tapped a few stones besides the door and waited for a moment. The door didn’t outwardly change, but there was a grinding noise, and a click.</p><p>The woman opened the door, which led to a long hallway with mosaics in the walls. The tiled floor was dappled in bright colors, sunlight filtered through stained glass skylights.</p><p>“Better show your friend the official entrance when you leave, okay? After closing time, my shop is strictly an emergency exit.”</p><p>“I know that.” Monika snapped, and rushed past the witch and walking quickly down the corridor, her colors seemingly shifting with every few steps</p><p>“Um, sorry about my friend...” Maggie told the woman, wanting to run after her but also not wanting to offend the gatekeeper.</p><p>“No worries, I’ve known that girl all her life. Just go and have fun.”</p><p>Maggie nodded and hurried after her friend, giving the intricate mosaics barely a glance, too focused on the other witch that seemed to appear and disappear between lights and shadows.</p><p>When she caught up with Monica, the other girl didn’t look mad anymore. </p><p>“Okay, what was that!”</p><p>“An old family friend. Do you have your cloak? We wanna look fashionable, right?”</p><p>Monika put on her fake witch hat again. Oh. Of course, that was what that had been about.</p><p>After knowing Monika for two years, she wasn’t even surprised.</p><p>“Sure. Wouldn’t want to upset anyone.” Maggie said, quickly exchanging her light summer jacket for her summer cloak.</p><p>-<br/>
“Welcome to the oldest magical quarter this side of the Rhine.” Monika announced a few minutes later, as they approached the end of the stained glass corridor.</p><p>They stepped through a round door way, and Maggie stopped to take in the West Alley for a few minutes.</p><p>This wasn’t her first time visiting a magical neighborhood. But it was still unlike anything she had seen before:</p><p>Brightly painted buildings, columns and round arches and stone flowers, colorful windows and intricate water features, lifelike marble statues, columns that reached up to the sky, a sky that glowed with colors too intense to be real, and at closer turned out to be made of stained glass, the facets slowly shifting through shades of blue and white to mimic the real sky outside.</p><p>Her friend pulled her along, pointing out her favorite places on the way. Her eyes now back down at pedestrian level, Maggie saw the many storefronts and shops that fitted themselves tightly into the Romanesque architecture. There was an potioneers store that advertised a special offer on dragon bile, bird songs that spilled from a pet shop one level above, a small divination office tucked into a corner and a big, trunk shaped building called ‘Karstens Kisten’ which had a grand display of their newest luxury suitcase while the other windows showcased all kinds of bags, trunks and magical storage solutions.</p><p>They walked past a small, artificial lake, and Maggie saw a group of people laze around in the deeper parts, splashing the water and chatting in some strange, rolling language she didn’t know. Maybe Italian? One of them suddenly dived, and a big, scaly tail broke the surface, the fishy fluke spraying water high into the air.</p><p>“Are those mermaids?”</p><p>Monika made a face as she followed her friends eyes. “Don’t call them that. They’re waterfolk, not merfolk.” </p><p>“Right. Sorry.”</p><p>“They sometimes come over from the river to visit here, but only during summer. I think they’re from somewhere in France, actually. Just don’t get too close, some of them like messing with people.”</p><p>Maggie took another look to the lake. On of the waterfolk had noticed her watching, and made eye contact, before diving and then jumping into the air, clearing the water easily. He made a big wave at reentry, spraying enough water for some droplets to hit her.. Maggie snorted and gave him a thumbs up before moving on, as his friends looked at him with annoyance.</p><p>The teenagers continued on, with Monika relaying some story about how some local witch had accidentally flooded half of the market a few years ago, and they had to travel on boats everywhere for a few days, until the leak could be fixed and the water was put back into the river, where it belonged.</p><p>In front of them, the street opened into a plaza, and Maggie could see a big bookstore on one side, outshining a number of smaller shops crowding around it. The middle of the plaza held a giant marble statue of a witch in renaissance clothing, the wand pointed to the sky and a scroll opened in her left hand.</p><p>Being curious, she strolled towards the statue, assuming her friend would follow.</p><p>“That’s Käte,” Monika piped up. “Or I guess you know her as Katharina Pfeilblatt, Hero of Trier, and so forth.” </p><p>Right, she had heard of that woman. She had been one of the original twelve witches that originally proposed the Statute of Secrecy, during the witch hunts of the seventeenth century, and was also heavily involved in their nations history</p><p>The plaque at the bottom also informed her that Pfeilblatt had been instrumental in ending the local witch hunts and establishing this place as a refuge for local witches and wizards, before involving herself with building up similar systems all across Central Europe.</p><p>She stepped back and looked to her friend.</p><p>“What’s next, the bookstore? I’m supposed to do the school shopping anyways, while I’m already here.”</p><p>Monika waved her hand. “We can do that tomorrow, no reason for you to carry around those books today. Today is the Fun Day, remember? Boring books aren’t on our list today.”</p><p>Maggie liked books. But she also understood where her friend was coming from.</p><p>“Alright! So what’s next on your ultimate list of fun, huh?”</p><p>“Well, -” Monika started, but Maggie wouldn’t find out as in this moment a darkly dressed wizard ran into her, knocking her to the ground while he barely lost momentum and continued in a hurry.</p><p>She heard shouts, she saw the stone floor race towards her, she stretched out a hand to stop the fall, only just noticing the one, slightly mismatched stone, just feeling that well known and feared static-y feeling of tiny hairs sticking out, a sudden jolt as her hand made contact, smooth and hard stone pressing harshly into her palm and West Alley disappeared from her view.</p><p>-<br/>
Maggie quickly stood up to her feet, taking in her surroundings. She was suddenly in the middle of a crowd of people, all dressed in old fashioned clothes that looked like they came straight from a renaissance festival. She was pushed around for a bit, knocking into a few people, before she could find her balance again. </p><p>The people looked angry, but they didn’t seem to take notice of her at all, despite her literally falling into them. She stood on her tip-toes to get a look on where she was. In the distance, the world faded into nothingness, a mist that looked thick enough to cut. </p><p>Just to confirm what she suspected, she waved her hand in front of a mans eyes. He didn’t react, even as she snatched his hat off and put it on herself, the fabric somehow feeling both real and insubstantial. </p><p>A vision. Great. Maggie placed the hat back onto the man, where it seemed to shift around slightly, before settling back into place, while she began squeezing herself through the crowd.</p><p>Things came into more focus, and she made out a voice addressing the gathered people. He was speaking in a high voice, projecting, listing something, at least judging from the rhythm of his words. Or reading a poem, but she found that unlikely, considering the crowds reaction. Moving away from the voice, Maggie finally found some more space on what seemed to be the market square. She recognized some of the buildings, but others were clearly new. Or rather, some were old, too old for her to remember.</p><p>The man droned on. She was pretty sure he was speaking some dialect of German, but she still had problems making out his words, despite this being an unusually clear vision.</p><p>Then a smell found her nose.</p><p>Smoke.</p><p>Fire. </p><p>Maggie turned around.</p><p>There, in the middle of the crowd, just inside the circle of visibility, stood a great pyre. A woman bound to a pole, crying and choking. Men with burning torches and drawn weapons stationed around it.</p><p>The man ended his speech, and the torches were lowered onto the pyre.</p><p>Maggie was about to avert her eyes, when the impossible happened.</p><p>The woman found Maggie, and locked eyes with her. Maggie froze. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The people in her visions never reacted. They couldn’t react, because it had all already happened.</p><p>The woman looked confused for a moment, but then smiled at her.</p><p>“Good luck, little magpie. You’ll need it.” </p><p>Then the woman started choking again, as the flames grew around her. Maggie stumbled back, as the fire suddenly rushed outwards -</p><p>-</p><p>- a hand was touching her face, someone was talking to her.</p><p>She opened her eyes and blinked, slowly getting used to the bright light. “Wha- where- ugh.” </p><p>“Oh my gosh, are you okay? I don’t – After you fell, you just – sorry I, I – I didn’t, I mean, you didn’t wake up, and I didn’t know what to do -”</p><p>Maggie’s hand shot out and she felt polyester. She grabbed the fake hat and pulled it into her friends face, who finally stopped rambling. Her head was pounding.</p><p>“I’m okay, just – just some headache, I think.” She took a look around, where a few people were looking at the girl that fell and passed out.</p><p>She attempted to stand up, but stopped when her head exploded again. She took a few breaths.</p><p>“Do you need me to get some help? We can go home and take a break, or I could find you a healer?” her friend asked with a soft voice.</p><p>Maggie shook her head, slowly. “I’ll be okay, I’ll just- Just let me lie here for few minutes.” She closed her eyes again and used her hand to shade them, for good measure.</p><p>Her friend was silent for a second. </p><p>“Okay. But if you need help…”</p><p>Maggie did her best to relax, taking deep breaths, focusing on nothing, until the pain began to slowly subside. She slowly opened her eyes again.</p><p>Monika was sitting behind her, looking a lot less jovial than before.</p><p>“Help me up?”</p><p>Her friend did, and Maggie sat up. They were on a bench on one side of the square. </p><p>“I think I’m okay now.”</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>Maggie stood up, and just stood there for a moment. Still a bit dizzy, but her legs felt sturdy enough.</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>Monika looked at her skeptically.</p><p>“Maybe we should stick to the bookstore for now.”</p><p>-<br/>
Inside the bookstore, it was quite a bit cooler and more importantly, quieter than on the streets outside. The two witches had done a little bit of browsing, before meeting in a reading corner, squeezing themselves into one armchair with their books.</p><p>“So, you’re really okay now?” Monika asked in hushed tones, turning a page.</p><p>Maggie brushed her hair behind her ear, staring at a moving photo of a handful of witches and wizards on broomsticks. “I’m fine. Really. It was just one of those stupid visions. I must have touched something old.”</p><p>A beat of silence.</p><p>“You were passed out. That was scary.” Her friend looked at her forgetting about the book. “I’m sorry, maybe the whole city tour was a bad idea.”</p><p>“No. It was a fun idea,” Maggie protested, “And I’m fine now. I just have to make sure not to touch anything historic or super magical.” </p><p>Monika closed her book. “Listen, Maggie, this is Trier. Even the pavement has history here. Do you know what that felt like, you suddenly gone and I could do nothing to help? I know we made plans, yes, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”</p><p>Maggie closed her book, a photo book, ‘The Heroes of Hogwarts’ embossed in gleaming gold letters. She traced the title. </p><p>“I don’t usually pass out like this, you know that. This was an exception, I’ll be more careful, okay. But I don’t want to throw away our day because of some stupid, one-in-a-million accident.”</p><p>Monika still didn’t look convinced.</p><p>Maggie rolled her eyes and put down the book to rummage through her backpack. “Here, I’ll just wear these, no touching, no visions, no more passing out.” </p><p>She stood up and started pulling on the gloves. They were ordinary fabric, no spells or enchantments. Her hands would be sweaty in no time, but she didn’t want to end this day yet.</p><p>Monika looked at her from the comfy armchair, holding their books, thinking. “I guess we can try. But if you get another vision, we’re going home, okay?”</p><p>She stood up and gave her the illustrated book. They started their way towards the counter to pay for their books. Her allowance should be enough for that.</p><p>“If you pass out, I’m not carrying you home.”</p><p>“Deal. Now where are we going next?”</p><p>“I’ll tell you after you tell me about that vision.”</p><p>-<br/>
Maggie quickly retold her experience, while the local witch led her through some smaller alleyways, occasionally climbing over fences and small gates, avoiding the bustle of the main street. Eventually, they reached another stained glass corridor, this one looking a lot more dusty and less well kept then the one they entered through. </p><p>“Are your sure this is the right way?” Maggie asked, colorful beams of light looking almost solid in the dusty air.</p><p>“Hey, trust me, I know this city better than anyone.” Monika rushed forward without hesitation, and Maggie followed, tugging slightly on her gloves, that sat slightly too warm on her skin.</p><p>“I know it’s a bit cliché, but if you visit Trier, you can’t skip the Porta.”</p><p>They walked through the dusty corridor, the air stale, but quite a bit cooler than outside. They ended up in front of an old wall, with a big mosaic mural depicting the city. Monika confidently tapped a number of small tiles with animals painted on. Some kind of password? Before doing the same on the other side of the room.</p><p>Then, the mosaic began to shift, the colorful stones wandering around and forming a new picture. The city disappeared and an old, vine-covered building appeared in the mosaic.</p><p>Using her wand, Monika gently pushed the vines to the side, which followed, bulging out of the flat surface and splitting the wall like a curtain, revealing an ornate doorway.</p><p>“Shall we?” she said, reaching a hand towards her friend.</p><p>Behind the door was a spiraling doorway, the steps slowly revolving upwards with a slow hum. They stepped onto it, Monika steadying Maggie, not wanting a repetition of before.</p><p>“I found this place when I was eight.”</p><p>The stairs moved past a window, that gave view to a field of old ruins, and another door in the wall, decorated with wine shaped frescoes.</p><p>“It’s some kind of nexus for the whole city.”</p><p>Another window, this one showing a park with neatly trimmed hedges and a large lawn. A coat of arms was sculpted into the stone above the door.</p><p>“It’s really useful if you need to get somewhere quick, but it’s also one way only.”</p><p>The next window opened up to glittering water; The door was decorated with waves and pearls.</p><p>“Wait, is that how you surprised me on the bridge? You waited here in the shadow until I walked by and just – popped in?”</p><p>Monika nodded, as they continued up. “I would have showed you tomorrow, but since our tour has been cut short, I thought this would be faster. Here.”</p><p>They stepped of the stairs, onto a floor with another window. They had to have been up high, and Maggie could get a good look at an old, partially destroyed building that stood in freely and proudly in the landscape. </p><p>The Porta Nigra. </p><p>The old stone had darkened over the centuries, from its initial white to dark grays and blacks, and of the two towers only one was still intact enough to be called such. But other than that, it was still recognizable as what it was once built to be.</p><p>The gate to the city, big enough to be a fortress in its own right.</p><p>Monika tugged her hand, gesturing to the door, held in the same blocky style as the building.</p><p>“You want to get a closer look?”</p><p>They opened the door and stepped onto the stone floor. The wind was whistling through twin windows, empty and eroded from almost two millennia.</p><p>She suppressed the urge to ask if they were allowed here. So far, her friend had never gotten her into trouble without knowing a way out. She stepped towards on the windows, tugging Monika with her.</p><p>They took in the view for a moment.</p><p>“You know, my mom didn’t even want me to come here,” she admitted. “She doesn’t like the magical world. I think she’s afraid, for some reason.”</p><p>Monika squeezed her hand and stepped closer, until they were shoulder to shoulder. “Well, you’re here now, aren’t you.”</p><p>Maggie nodded. She smiled sadly. “I guess I got lucky this place has so much muggle history as well. I really had to play it up as an ‘educational experience’ for her to agree. I also promised I would take care of any school year shopping while I’m here. When I’m back at home, that means no more magic until the school year begins.”</p><p>Monika hugged her with one arm and laid her head on her shoulder.</p><p>“We’ve still got a whole week, right? And after that, it’s only a few weeks before it’s back to school.”</p><p>“Yeah. Just a few weeks until I can go full witch again.”</p><p>They separated.</p><p>Monika looked around. “I would say that is the end to the historical tour, right? Checked all the sights, saw the Porta, stood on the Porta, all that’s left is getting out of here with no one the wiser.”</p><p>“Lead the way, Ms. Tour-guide.”</p><p>Monika laughed. With her help, getting out seemed almost as easy as getting in, and soon the girls were back on the streets between the few remaining tourists, as the sun slowly crept towards the horizon and bathed the city in golden light.</p><p>-<br/>
The sun had already set when they returned to Monica’s home, where Maggie met her friends parents for the first time. She had to explain that she preferred ‘Maggie’ over Margret. They had dinner where her friend’s mother interrogated her on her daughter’s behavior at school (Monika had already prepared her for that) and also her home, and then she was set up in the guest room, where Maggie finally got a moment of calm.</p><p>She found her new book in her backpack, and decided to read that for a bit. According to the foreword, the author and his older brother had attended Hogwarts, the famous British School during the nineties, having a front seat to many of the events that would lead up to the Second British Blood War, a war that threatened to break the statute of secrecy and caused a lot of suffering on the Isles.</p><p>Of course, Maggie hadn’t even been born at that time, but the war was still fresh in the mind of the magical community, even it stayed mostly contained to the British Isles.</p><p>And this book promised to shed a bit light on the truth behind all of those fantastic stories, including a lot of photos, making this a lot more exciting than dry textbooks.</p><p>(Of course, her textbooks probably wouldn’t even include this part of history – the wizarding community didn’t really think of anything in the last fifty years as history, and she was pretty sure her textbook was older than herself, broken-spine and yellowed paper.)</p><p>In the bookstore, she had only skimmed the first few pages, and also been a bit distracted from her vision. Now she could start from the beginning.</p><p>“Before I even entered Hogwarts, a giant squid saved me from drowning. Of course, for my eleven year old self, that seemed like an exiting adventure. But looking back at it now, it set the tone for most of my time at Hogwarts…”</p><p>-<br/>
‘Good luck, little magpie. You’ll need it.’</p><p>Maggie woke with sweat on her brow, flailing her arms that had been on fire just a few moments ago. She quickly switched on the bedside lamp, and looked around the strange room, before remembering where she was.</p><p>Right.</p><p>Trier.</p><p>Monica.</p><p>Just a stupid nightmare because of her stupid vision.</p><p>She groaned and closed her eyes to flames, shook her head and stood up. It would take some time before she’d be able to sleep again.</p><p>She blinked at her watch. 3 am. She walked to a window and opened it. The air had cooled a bit since the sun had set, but it was still far from the crispy coolness Maggie had hoped for.</p><p>The witch on the pyre had seen her. Somehow, despite the gap of centuries between them, the woman had looked her straight into the eyes and spoken to her. It didn’t make sense. </p><p>Flames, enveloping a body, the putrid smell of burning hair…</p><p>Maggie took a shaky breath and shook her head. It wasn’t real. This was all in the past, right? This didn’t happen anymore, she told herself, staring into the star studded sky above. She needed some distraction. Something to take her mind of things, so she could get back to sleep.</p><p>She tilted the window. It wasn’t cold outside, and a bit of fresh air might be good. A book. A book would help her now. Her eyes found the illustrated cover of her newest acquisition.</p><p>She settled herself back into her bed, tugging the blank higher and opened the pages, to read a bit until she would be tired enough again.</p><p>-<br/>
The next day, everything seemed back to normal again. Maggie put on her cotton gloves on her friends insistence, and after a relaxed breakfast, they went off into the city again. Monika had decided it was time to introduce her to a few of her childhood friends, local kids that she grew up with.</p><p>Monika led her to the official entrance of the West Alley, which was hidden in the back of a coffee shop not far from the train station.<br/>
They showed their wands to an old man with an impressive beard and a Tyrolean hat, and he gestured for them to a double door with a sign that read:</p><p>‘Zugang für Unbefugte verboten | Off limits to unauthorized personnel’</p><p>Maggie tried to open it. The door was locked.</p><p>“Strike the ‘un’ and tap the dots.” Monika explained and demonstrated, one swish and two taps.</p><p>Nothing seemed to change. She turned the handle. The door opened without any problems now, revealing another stained glass corridor, this one a lot wider than the others.</p><p>As Monika explained, there were actually a few dozen entrances and exits to the Alley hidden throughout the city. “The ‘Off limit doors’ are the public ones. The idea is that it’s less conspicuous if you don’t have this one spot were masses of people disappear into and don’t come out again, I think.”</p><p>But soon after that, Maggie and her friend got split up. Her mother had called her on her phone. She hadn’t expected her phone to get any signal here, but it did. Somehow.</p><p>To get a bit of privacy, she had ducked into the shade around the corner of a building, and when she ended the call, where friend was nowhere to be found.</p><p>After a moment of searching, no success, she decided that maybe her friend was just doing one of her pranks again. Maybe she could try and find that Nexus again, after all, that was what Monika had used yesterday, right? </p><p>But without her friend, the streets suddenly became a lot more confusing, and Maggie soon found herself lost. She looked up at the shifting glass sky. </p><p>The West Alley wasn’t even that big of a place, she reminded herself. It had limits. She would just look for the biggest street, then she’d find her way back to where she started, and wait for her friend to turn up again.</p><p>She readjusted her backpack, and looked around, before picking one direction that looked right. There were some shouts in the distance, in front of her. Shouts meant people, right?</p><p>Forced to take take a corner, Maggie went left, then another left – Dead End. In front of her was big brick wall made from smooth sandstone, reaching up, up, up until it reached the ceiling. Great. She’d gone in the wrong direction, to the literal end of this hidden world.</p><p>Maggie turned around and looked up, trying to make out the direction of shadows between the high walls around her. Just beneath the roofs she could see some sunlight light up a bit of wall. Keep the sun on her left and don’t get turned around, she told herself.</p><p>She started walking at a quick pace, trying to make up for the wasted time.</p><p>The shouts grew louder. </p><p>There was a sudden explosion of brick and dust, and Maggie stumbled back as a dark figure rounded the corner, and cursed loudly when he recognized the dead end.</p><p>He looked at her, with a face so covered in burn scars it looked barely human, and she froze.</p><p>Another spell impacted with ground behind the man, and he made a grab for her.</p><p>Maggie flinched back, but then he shot a quick spell at her and she froze.</p><p>She couldn’t do anything as he grabbed and put her in front of him, the tip of his wand digging into her temple, dragging her backwards into the street as two other wizards rounded the corner.</p><p>“<em>Don’t come any closer, or the girl gets it.</em>”, he shouted in English, with a broad accent that made it difficult for Maggie to parse the words. She didn’t need the words though, the wand at her temple and the arm clamped around her was enough to understand the situation.</p><p>A dark wizard had taken her hostage.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This first chapter is set sometime in the 2010s. As we are still in Germany, most can be assumed to speak German for now, even if Dialogue is written in English.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The First Rule of Time Travel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maggie has been taken hostage by a dark wizard, who apparently stole some kind of time machine - that he doesn't know how to use, because all the instructions are in German - so suddenly Maggie is coerced into translating for him, her language skill the only thing keeping her alive.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Second Chapter. We'll get into some time travel now.</p><p>From now on, all dialogue will be assumed to be English, unless otherwise indicated. You can also always assume that Maggie has a German accent, for now.</p><p>TWs: Maggie is taken as a hostage and kidnapped here. This will involve some rough manhandling and violence towards her.<br/>If you need to skip, you can read until  -PRESENT DAY- and continue at  -1994 -.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a lucky coincidence that led to Dumbledore sitting in his office on this particular day, allowing him to witness what happened.</p><p>Summer had begun, the school had been mostly empty for a few weeks now, and even Dumbledore planned to leave in a few days, once he finished a bit more paperwork and figured out what to do about the now again empty post for the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. </p><p>Sadly, he couldn’t overturn the boards decision on the matter and had to let Remus Lupin go after the man’s condition became public knowledge. By now, most people that were qualified to teach DADA were also aware that doing so at Hogwarts came with a big risk and inevitably ended within one year. Remus had only agreed as a favor for Dumbledore, to keep an eye on Harry Potter after the news of Sirius Black’s escape broke.</p><p>Of course, their were always those willing to take the post for the prestige alone. But with Sybil’s second prophecy and Voldemort’s return becoming more and more likely, Dumbledore knew he couldn’t afford another Lockhart. With the Triwizard Tournament hopefully returning to Hogwarts, he needed every help he could get to make sure nothing went wrong this year.</p><p>He kept racking his head for someone who was qualified, trustworthy and willing to take the risk, when suddenly one of the dozens of instruments in his office started spinning and sounding an alarm.</p><p>Dumbledore stood up and walked to the cabinet, where now multiple magical devices started spinning up, and with a gesture of his wand started recording measurements.</p><p>This looked like something close.</p><p>He quickly strode towards the window, just in time to hear the sudden clap of thunder, followed by a short burst of brilliant colors above a nearby mountain, and a flash of light just after that lit up the cloud hugging the mountainside from the inside.</p><p>His instruments spun down again, the magical potential dissipating.</p><p>With a few swings of his wand, Dumbledore was dressed and out of the door.</p><p>He would need a closer look at that.</p><p>- Present Day -</p><p>“He’s got a hostage,” one of the wizards exclaimed.</p><p>The wizards, aurors stood there, wands still raised but both clearly unwilling to act rashly, now that another life was in danger. Now that her life was in danger.</p><p>Maggie’s breaths were shallow, and she tried to do something, but the body-bind-hex didn’t allow her to try and wiggle out of this, much less do anything proactive.</p><p>“Back! Back around that corner, or I’ll blast her ruddy head off,” the man barked, his arm pressing her uncomfortably close to him. </p><p>Maggie closed her eyes, and tried to do something, fight the magic that held her trapped, maybe find some words that would save her, but nothing came.</p><p>“Let the girl go first,” one of the aurors demanded, while the other was raising his wand.</p><p>PAIN.</p><p>A sudden jolt directly into her head, the pain strong enough to make her almost gag. The aurors had gone still.</p><p>“Step back,” the man snarled, while her head was still swimming in pain. </p><p>-<br/>
She didn’t quite remember what happened next, but he must have succeeded in evading the aurors, as after a few stressful minutes of being manhandled and trying to keep her calm, he dragged her into a room in some building she couldn’t describe. He threw her to the side to lock a door behind him and stopped paying attention to her, mumbling something in English that she couldn’t make out. Her limbs felt prickly, as if they had all been asleep for an hour and were slowly regaining their feeling.</p><p>Wait. Regaining their feeling. She could move. The body-bind must have worn off at some point.</p><p>But there was still pain. She bit back a groan, not wanting to get his attention again. Maybe she could sneak away and escape, if she was careful enough.</p><p>She slowly placed her hands under herself, before pushing herself up onto all fours, trying not to make any sounds, forcefully keeping her breath steady and calm. She could deal with some pain, right?</p><p>From her current position, she could see the man fiddling with something in his hands. Thankfully, he had turned his back to her. Slowly she stood up, careful to be quiet. Her wand was still buried in her backpack; She wasn’t really supposed to do any magic anyway, while she wasn’t at school, so she hadn’t thought she would need it at hand. Her friend had insisted that no one would care, but Maggie didn’t want to risk it only for the Ministry to rat her out and send a letter to her mother. Of course, now she regretted that decision.</p><p>She looked around for a way out, carefully listening to the man mumbling and occasionally cursing at whatever he was holding in his hand. Chancing a look into his direction, she saw that he was now holding a pristine looking folder in the other hand. Maggie kept silent and scanned the rest of the room.</p><p>He had definitely locked the door behind him, so that wasn’t an option unless she found a way to knock him out first. The wall on the left had a small, high window, to small for a grown man to squeeze through, but maybe big enough for a thirteen year old girl. It seemed to be the only exit other than the door. </p><p>But she couldn’t just go there and climb out. That would take too long, and he would see her and stop her. If she couldn’t overwhelm him, she needed a distraction at least. She was only starting her third year as a witch, and they hadn’t started on stunning spells yet. But maybe she could figure something else to disable him long enough to escape. Maybe if she could get his wand… </p><p>“Couln’t write that in a civilised language, could they,” the man grumbled, flicking through the folder. He turned, and Maggie started moving when he didn’t look her way, dropping herself to the floor when he turned towards her again, pretending she was still petrified.</p><p>The window was maybe a meter to her left now, and one and a half above. He didn’t even glance at her as he paced the room, before going back to the door for a few second to rattle the door handle. Apparently unhappy with the doors integrity, he started putting a few more spells onto it.</p><p>This was her chance. She stood up and slung her backpack down, grabbing it in one hand. She started running the two, three steps and swung her backpack at the back of his head, as he was turning towards her.</p><p>The backpack hit, the impact staggering and making him drop his wand in surprise. Still with backpack in her right, Maggie lunged for the dropped wand, but before she could reach it, a hand was grabbing the back of her shirt and she fell.</p><p>She scrambled away, as he stepped past her to pick up his wand, now holding the backpack.</p><p>“You’re supposed to be quiet.”</p><p>In a last ditch attempt, she sprinted towards the window and slammed it open, but just as she had brought her head through, a spell impacted and her body stiffened again.</p><p>“You really shouldn’t have done that,” he growled, and Maggie was almost certain this would be her end, as he pulled her back into the room and pointed his wand at her. She felt the panic rise, she had to do something, and suddenly something snapped and she could move again. </p><p>Both running and trying to overwhelm had already failed, and she didn’t like her chances enough to try again.</p><p>“Please, don’t, I- I won’t tell anyone, just don’t…” she bargained, using what little English she had learned in school, hoping that against all odds this man would show mercy.</p><p>She didn’t die. </p><p>“You speak English.” the man said.</p><p>Maggie nodded; she decided not to describe how rudimentary her skill was. If this could save her life, she would speak English, and she would be good at it.</p><p>The man picked up the folder and threw it at her.</p><p>“You can read this, right?”</p><p>She looked at the folder. It seemed to be some kind scientific work, or the magical equivalent. It was also written in German.</p><p>“I can read this, yes.” It wouldn’t be easy, but she didn’t have much of a choice.</p><p>He picked up another item, some kind of mechanical apparatus with lots of dials and circular gauges and buttons and a glass front.</p><p>“You will translate. You will tell me how to use this thing, and I won’t kill you.”</p><p>Maggie looked at the- the thing the man was holding. She nodded. She didn’t want to help him, but if it kept her alive.</p><p>Maggie opened the folder and started reading.</p><p>“Experiment Nr. 316. When die Hypothese stimmt, sollte der …</p><p>“English. You’re not translating.”</p><p>“I - I can’t – I mean I can translate, but it will take longer if I have to translate every sentence, and I have to read them first. Then I will translate.” </p><p>He rolled his eyes and gave a nervous glance towards the door. She was telling the truth, not trying to stall, but his nervousness made it clear that stalling for time might just be her best bet right now.</p><p>“Read quicker then. Find out how this bloody thing works.”</p><p>Maggie glanced at the apparatus. It didn’t look bloody, but she wouldn’t ask him about that. She started skimming the pages, trying to focus on the task at hand, while also hoping he wouldn’t get impatient. Her eyes widened once she realized what it was the man had stolen.</p><p>The folder didn’t include an instruction manual or anything of the sorts. It was a documentation of experiments. Experiments related to time manipulation of all sorts. Some successful. Some not. Some with unexpected and bewildering results. </p><p>This was a time machine, the kind that could get you back decades, centuries, and put you exactly where you needed to go. And worse, it was highly experimental. This thing was dangerous, and she knew she had to find a way to prevent this man from using it.</p><p>Maggie slowed herself down, occasionally flipping back a few pages. Make it look like there were more pages that there were. The ground exploded at her side, and Maggie shrieked in surprise and flinched, slightly crumbling a page.</p><p>“Hurry up, will ya. I don’t have all day,” he said, then mulled it over, and laughed. “Not yet, at least.” </p><p>So he knew perfectly fine what he had stolen. Just not how to use it.</p><p>“This is a Time Machine,” she stated. Maybe she could gain time by making him talk? In those stories, the villains always liked to talk, right?</p><p>“Got it in one, did you.” He grinned, the glossy skin of his scarred face stretching and distorting his disfigured features even more, his eyes filled with a manic glint. He lifted up the device, which was roughly the size of a small radio, and looked a lot more technological than magical, despite clearly being the product of magic.</p><p>“This is the key to my future,” he proclaimed. “It will make right what went wrong. And then everything will be as it’s supposed to be,” he said. “No stop wasting my time. How does it work?”</p><p>Maggie froze. She didn’t know. But she couldn’t tell him that.</p><p>“It’s- it’s not – not easy to explain,” she stringed words together to get her point across.</p><p>“The – the text – the paper...s, they don’t say how to use it...” she admitted.</p><p>He huffed and lifted his wand.</p><p>“ButIcanfindout!” she hastily added. “Just a few more minutes, please, then I can look – look what did what in those – Versuche – tests the text is talking about and then tell you how to use it.”</p><p>He glared at her, then looked at the door again. He conjured an hourglass and turned it.</p><p>“Five minutes. If you have nothing then, I’ll re-con-sider my offer.” he hissed at her.</p><p>Maggie didn’t waste anymore time, hastily scrambling to make good on the promise she didn’t know she could keep. Figuring out how to operate an experimental time manipulator with just some description of experiments wouldn’t be easy, that much was clear. </p><p>Here, they described a few settings in this paragraph. And there, another mention of a key component. Piece by piece, she began to puzzle it together.</p><p>“I need to see it closer,” she said, glancing fearfully towards the mostly empty hourglass.</p><p>“You really think I’m gonna fall twice for that, brat?”</p><p>The hourglass was almost empty.</p><p>“You have a- you know, magic stick thingy. And you’re clearly stronger and cleverer. What could I do anyway? Just give me the thing and I can explain how it works.”</p><p>He contemplated, and nodded, not looking at the empty hourglass. Maggie did her best to hold his gaze despite wanting to look away. She stood up slowly and readjusted her backpack, the folder with the papers in one hand, then reached out her other hand.</p><p>“Don’t get any funny ideas.” he said, his wand still firmly pointed at her.</p><p>Why was no one coming? She resisted the urge to just drop the damn thing, and made a show off turning it around, while glancing into the folder a few more times. Holding it in her hand, the notes in those papers suddenly made a lot more sense. Maggie realized she didn’t need the folder. The buttons and dials were clearly labeled, the only difficulty being in the fine-tuning of the setting wheels.</p><p>“Explain. Now.”</p><p>And it seemed her time was up.</p><p>Maggie rolled up the folder and carelessly stuffed it into a pocket, to have both hands free to fiddle with the device. “Where do you want to go? Or when, I guess?” </p><p>She took a step closer to him, and started explaining</p><p>“Most of these rolly-bits  and buttons are not that important I think.” she gestured around a row of buttons and a few rolling dials, quickly pressing a few of them, turning the mass compensator to the ten kilogram mark. “Just useless science stuff.” He nodded, apparently accepting that without questions. Good. He might actually fall for it.</p><p>“The important ones are those ten wheels.” She turned it around, pressing the loop button with her thumb. “Five for the year, one for the month, two for the day, two for the hour.” </p><p>She deftly moved the mode slider to precision instead of leaping, turning decades to seconds.</p><p>“Just tell me when and I can put it in,” she said with false confidence. He wouldn’t go anywhere if this worked out.</p><p>He looked at her, then grabbed the device, and started putting in numbers. Maggie strained her eyes trying to see what they were. When he was done, he looked at her again. </p><p>“So how do I start it.”</p><p>“Turn this key, then wait for the – the kling sound and push that putton, and don’t let go.” she explained, hoping he wouldn’t ask anymore questions.</p><p>He turned the key, and the device started to produce a pleasant hum. A few second later, they heard something like a small chime, signaling it was ready to start. He put his thick finger to the button – and hesitated.</p><p>“How do I know you told me truth and this thing won’t send me Merlin-knows-where,” he said.</p><p>Maggie took a step back. “I didn’t – I mean, I did tell the truth,” she tried to convince, while trying to keep some distance.</p><p>He advanced. “If that is true,” he said, “then you won’t mind coming with, will you. It’s perfectly safe, after all, right.” Maggie stumbled back, but soon found a wall behind her. He grabbed her wrist in his hand.</p><p>“Why don’t you push the button?”</p><p>He forced her hand towards the small time machine. And had no idea what would happen if he succeeded.</p><p>-<br/>
“Wait!”, she screamed. “I- If I travel back, the settings, have to be- be changed for two people,” she said quickly.</p><p>“I thought the settings didn’t matter,” he hissed menacingly.</p><p>“They are, they are set for one person now. It won’t work – the way it should work, if we both use it  now,” she said quickly. Not lying, but also not admitting to her deception.</p><p>He stepped closer, trapping her against the wall.</p><p>“Well, you better make sure it’s properly set up then. Because I’m not letting you go until I get what I want.”</p><p>He wasn’t holding his wand right now, but neither was Maggie, and after her failed ambush earlier she had no illusions about who would win in a physical fight.</p><p>She nodded, forced herself to calm down a bit and hesitantly reached for the device, turning back the key, quickly changing the settings, making a generous estimation for mass, switching the loop off and finally changing it back to the leaping mode after some hesitation.</p><p>She lifted her hand, wondering if she had forgotten anything, but then again, she was half guessing anyway. Her kidnapper suddenly gripped her wrist again, and she was grateful for the glove that meant he didn’t touch her directly.</p><p>“No running away now,” he inspected the date he had put in earlier. The first of July 1980. Something about that specific year tugged at her memory, but she couldn’t remember why.</p><p>“Well, why don’t you do the honors then,” he said, keeping his grip tight and holding out the device.</p><p>Maggie took a deep breath. She turned the key, and the device started humming again. She placed her finger on the button, waiting. She didn’t know why he wanted that specific date, but she knew it couldn’t be for a good reason. “We need to wait for the -” Kling!</p><p>Then, before he could stop her, she spun the year wheels forward, advancing by a few digits and just about clicking the decade forward once before he could force down her finger on the bottom.</p><p>As the time machine started it’s work, Maggie used the jolt to slip her hand out of the glove and tried to get away from the man that had kidnapped her.</p><p>But then the room fell away and they were suddenly sucked close to the device again, stopping her escape attempt in it’s track. Gravity seemed to disappear as they entered a free fall.</p><p>The world around them stretched into long bands of bright colors, then twisted into more shapes that whirled around them and raced past them, as reality seemed to shudder and rebuilt itself only to break down again and repeat the cycle every few seconds.</p><p>He looked around with a manic glint in his eye, and started laughing maniacally, looking at what he believed a victory still.</p><p>Maggie tried to push herself away, but some force kept her glued to the device, locked onto it.</p><p>“You really thought I would just let you go?” he snarled at her.</p><p>Locked. The key. He suddenly put his hand to her neck.</p><p>“You really think I’m this stupid? You better enjoy this ride, cause it will be your last.”</p><p>He laughed again, his hand almost caressing her neck and Maggie shuddered. She didn’t care what would happen, she needed to get away, whatever the cost.</p><p>She closed her eyes briefly, her hand grasping at his arm, then slid it down to quickly turn the key and slide it out, only to ram it into the hand at her neck. He cried out, his grip loosened for a second, just long for her to bring her legs up and kick into him, as the force holding them together broke and reality split around them again. He tried to grab her, but they were drifting apart now, worlds shifting and bending around them, until he disappeared from her view.</p><p>She gripped the key like a lifeline, not knowing if she would ever escape this inbetween she had been forced into, when suddenly the wind picked of, the shifting shapes elongated once more and Maggie just about noticed the colors dull down before she impacted the ground, skidding to a stop again.</p><p>- 1994 -</p><p>Maggie had barely gotten to her knees when the pain hit.</p><p>“Aarghg!” A headache, maybe the worst she had ever had in her life.</p><p>She dropped down and heaved and emptied her breakfast onto to ground, her body shaking with every breath.</p><p>She closed her eyes tightly, and rolled to the side or curl up, too consumed by the painful pounding in her head. She forced herself to breath slowly, to not focus on the pain.</p><p>For a moment, she wondered if she was dying. If the time machine had done something, if she was now just clinging to life with her last strength, and would soon leave this plane.</p><p>But then, slowly, the pain receded, going down to a more tolerable level. Still a murder headache. But not unbearable. Not to her, who had lived with this for most of her life.</p><p>She took a few more shaky breaths, before she forced her eyes open and blinked into the dull light. She suddenly realized how cold it was, cold and clammy. Around her, she saw a meadow, the colors muted by the light filtering through the fog surrounding her. </p><p>Was this -</p><p>Was this a vision?</p><p>But she had never had a headache within a vision. In any case, it was probably better to assume it was real for now.</p><p>Then the fog broke and gave her a view of the mountains. She was in the mountains. But that didn’t help much. The only mountains she knew all that well were the Seven Mountains of her home, and those looked very different.</p><p>Remembering something important, Maggie looked around, and spotted glint among the grass. Standing up reluctantly, she walked over picked up the Key, before slipping it into her pocket. Maybe she would need it for… for something she didn’t know about yet.</p><p>She slumped down and sat into the damp grass, not caring how it might ruin her clothes. Eyes closed, she listened to the whistling winds and rushing grass. </p><p>Thinking about it, she didn’t even know what country she was in. Or what continent, even. For all she knew, she could be in the middle of China now, or somewhere deep south in South America.</p><p>The pounding in her head receded further, until it was only a slight wooziness, like cotton wrapped around her mind.  </p><p>She opened her eyes. First thing, she needed to find out when and where she was. She needed to find people. There had to be people somewhere around here, right?</p><p>She stood up and turned slowly to orient herself.</p><p>And stopped, when she spotted the old wizard that was strolling up a path she hadn’t noticed before. He looked into her direction and smiled, blue eyes glinting behind half moon glasses.</p><p>“Ah, that is good. I was hoping someone could explain what caused such a ruckus today.” </p><p>She had never met this man before, but his face looked vaguely familiar. Long, white beard, a thin, crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken and twinkling blue eyes.</p><p>And then it clicked.</p><p>Albus Dumbledore. Former headmaster of Hogwarts Dumbledore. Died over a decade ago, Albus Dumbledore. She stared into his eyes in shock, while he looked at her curiously.</p><p>He gave slight smile.</p><p>“I believe some introductions are in order, don’t you think so?”</p><p>-<br/>
After some hesitation, she decided to follow the old wizard, who led her to a small village with steep roofs and some very obvious magical inhabitants. Looking around, she tried to figure out what year she had ended up in, but didn’t really find anything obvious. The wizarding community in Britain was famously insular and tended to reject anything ‘modern’ that wasn’t of magical origin.</p><p>He led her into a pub, The Three Broomsticks, and started talking to the woman behind the counter.</p><p>“If you have a more private room, Rosmerta. Me and this young lady have a few things to discuss.”</p><p>“Ah, is she a new student?”, the woman asked. She spoke with some kind of accent, Maggie noticed.</p><p>Somewhere else, Maggie could hear a few men talking about quidditch.</p><p>“This is part of what we will discuss, yes.”</p><p>The lady nodded, and came out of the counter to lead them into the back. Maggie followed in the back, and could just make out a man complaining about the British Quidditch Team.</p><p>“It’s a real shame, losing this year especially. In our own country.” </p><p>But then she followed Dumbledore into the backroom, and the conversation died down quickly, as if suddenly snuffed out. She furrowed her eyebrows. Was this a spell, or just unusual acoustics?</p><p>She took a seat across from the older wizard. </p><p>“Anything you want to order, while you’re here?” the woman, Rosmerta, asked.<br/>
“Uhm,” Maggie stumbled, not prepared for the sudden question and unsure how to answer. The barkeep seemed to realize that quickly enough, and started listing a few options.</p><p>Getting something into her stomach again was probably a good idea. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and most of that had ended up on the mountainside. Unfamiliar with the local cuisine, Maggie had to ask a few more questions, before settling on her order.</p><p>Then Dumbledore talked a bit to Rosmerta, giving Maggie a short moment to think.</p><p>Quidditch! The man had complained about the national team, so it had to be a world cup, right? Those were every four years. In our own country. Meaning England? When had the world cup last been in England? She racked her brain, to see if she could remember. She definitely didn’t remember it during her lifetime – and she wasn’t obsessed with this sport to care about anything before that, but it felt as if she had read about this recently, somewhere…</p><p>“Miss Alster?” Dumbledore interrupted her train of thought. Right. She was here because Hogwarts’ Headmaster might be in a position to help her. </p><p>“So, from what you have told me, you were in Trier, Germany, when you were accosted by a man with a big facial scar, who then used a portkey to transport you both away, but you somehow managed to free yourself during travel and landed on the meadow where we met. And now you are only looking for a way home. Is that all?” </p><p>She hadn’t been entirely honest in her account of the events. This was time travel. Not telling people that you were a time traveler was the number one rule of time travel, right?</p><p>“Something like this, yes.” She mumbled, studying the grain pattern of the table. Going home. Was that even possible?</p><p>“Well, if that is what happened, you were extremely lucky to survive such an event. Properly made portkeys don’t allow an interruption for a good reason, Miss Alster.”</p><p>Considering her situation, it was of more of a could-have-turned-out-worse kinda luck.</p><p>Dumbledore was still staring at her, waiting for her to say something. She looked to the side, stubborn not to give anything away, agonizing over what to do.</p><p>Maybe if she knew what year it was, she could decide her course of action. But she couldn’t ask without giving everything away. Rule one in the book on time travel, right?</p><p>The Book. Of course.</p><p>Dennis’ first year at Hogwarts. Victor Krum had played in the World Cup. The World Cup in England.</p><p>Suddenly it all connected. She knew what year she was in now.</p><p>“Of course, getting you home to Germany shouldn’t be much of a problem. There’s a post office in town, or I could send an owl to your parents, and discuss the situation quite easily.”</p><p>She hummed, thoughts racing, and not meeting his eyes. Her parents wouldn’t know her, as she hadn’t been born yet. She wasn’t even sure if her parents knew each other at this point.</p><p>“I can -” she started and thought better of it, looking at her mismatched hands. One glove lost in the struggle. Her assailant had stolen the time machine to change something. It didn’t matter if she shut her mouth, because he would still try and follow his plan, whatever that plan was.</p><p>Maybe rule one didn’t apply to this situation.</p><p>So instead of telling the Headmaster that she would send a letter herself, she settled on a question. Her mind still thinking of the date on the dials, she looked him straight in the eyes.</p><p>“What happened in July 1980?”</p><p>And for a short moment, Dumbledore’s patient smile slipped, and he looked surprised for a moment.</p><p>“It is 1994, right?”</p><p>“Very astute. I assume I am talking to a time traveler then.”</p><p>Maggie sighed. </p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>She straightened, and nodded, as if to convince herself.</p><p>“I’m a time traveler.”</p><p>-<br/>
Over the next hour or so, Maggie retold her day to Dumbledore, who now insisted that every detail could be important. They discussed the potential motives her kidnapper might have had, discussed the strange time machine, Maggie reenacting how she had to piece together how it worked from random reports about experimental uses, and finally, how she tried to prevent him from actually getting into 1980. </p><p>How she wasn’t even sure she had been successful in doing so.</p><p>But Dumbledore calmed her down. She had the key, and if she had landed in 1994, it was unlikely the thief had gotten much further, especially if he didn’t know how his time machine worked.</p><p>Once Dumbledore finally seemed satisfied with his understanding of the event, he decided she deserved a break.</p><p>“You’ve been through a lot today, Miss Alster. We can discuss our further steps tomorrow, but for now I’ll arrange for you to stay here, if that is agreeable.”</p><p>Maggie agreed. But she had one important question left.</p><p>“I shouldn’t tell people about the time travel, right?” </p><p>Dumbledore nodded.</p><p>“You have good instincts. It will probably be easier if you don’t. But I wouldn’t worry too much about it. And from what I’ve seen so far, I believe you won’t have a problem finding a believable story.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>"West Alley": The city of Trier has streets named Nord-, Süd- and Ostallee, ("North, South and East Alley"). The missing "Westallee" would be expected to be close to the river, and I decided to name the magical district accordingly.</p><p>Germany was an epicenter for European witch trials in the Renaissance, which is why it makes sense that German witches and wizards would be among the first to establish something akin the Statute of Secrecy.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Wonders of Bureaucracy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maggie spends the summer preparing for her year at Hogwarts and deals with a bit of homesickness. But even before the summer can end, she is suddenly reminded of the oncoming war.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter 3, not my favorite one, but necessary to bridge the gap between arriving in 1994 and starting at Hogwarts.</p><p>I know Tonks is supposed to have a London accent. I don't know enough about British slang to write that convincingly, so I didn't try.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>wo hours into her workday and Philomena Pickering already felt done with life, the world and this cursed summer.</p><p>Usually, the Department of Foreign Affairs  was a rather calm part of the ministry. There were the occasional immigrants that decided to move here, and the few witches that had to stay in the UK for longer periods for other reasons, as well as the occasional diplomats and the like, yes, but it didn’t lead to all that much traffic. Usually.</p><p>Sadly, this year Usually didn’t apply.</p><p>This year, magical Britain had the questionable honor of hosting the quidditch world cup. While the rest of the ministry was constantly talking in excited voices, secretly exchanging bets or complaining about their own team leaving the competition so early, her department was suddenly buried in mountains of work, making sure all those foreigners actually had the right paperwork to stay in their country.</p><p>Hundreds of sportsmen, foreign dignitaries, journalists and the likes all suddenly needed to come over for the months the competition would take up. And as if that hadn’t been enough, some of those higher ups had also decided to reinstate the cursed Triwizard Tournament, ensuring that even after the World Cup they couldn’t hope to return to normality any time soon.</p><p>She fiddled with her self-inking quill, pondering what those big-wigs must have thought.<br/>Deciding that she had taken enough of a break, Philomena decided to bring in the next person. Some German girl, according to the card she had quickly read and promptly filed away to keep her desk clutter free.</p><p>“Hello, PhilomenaPickeringHowmayIhelpyou,” she rattled down her introduction, a sentence that had lost all meaning weeks ago. The girl looked to be old enough to be attending Hogwarts, or whatever schools they had over there on the continent. A bit mousy, especially with how she continually glanced back to the door and barely met her eyes.</p><p>“Uhm, hello. I’m here because of the wand. I’m staying in the country for a while, and I was told I have to get some kind of permit.”</p><p>Philomena pursed her lips. Right. The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery required that the magical activities of all underage wizards and witches could be monitored by the ministry. Even those that were only visiting.</p><p>“Are you staying longer than a week? There’s an exception if your just her for a few days.”</p><p>The girl furrowed her brows for a bit.<br/>“Uhm, I think I’m in London for the rest of the summer.”</p><p>A quidditch fan, Philomena decided. End of summer meant a temporary three month spell should cover it nicely which was good news for her. Those forms she could fill out and file pretty quickly by now.</p><p>“You have your wand here?”</p><p>“Yes.” The girl took of the bag and rummaged through it, still awkwardly standing in the middle of the room. Philomena pushed the chair back with a flick of her wand and swiveled around to find the right paperwork.</p><p>“Please, have a seat, this should take only a few minutes to fill out and apply.”</p><p>There it was. Another flick of her wand, and the papers quickly spread themselves over the desk. She quickly explained to the girl what and where to sign and how to fill out the forms before asking for her wand for inspection.</p><p>The girl did interrupt her a few times to clarify something, but this long into the summer Philomena was just happy she spoke intelligible English at all.</p><p>The wand was in top condition, the language barrier was easily crossed and soon all those lines and boxes where filled with the appropriate crosses and words, to be filed away and most likely never see another pair of human eyes again.</p><p>She gave the girl her wand back, then quickly filled out a form that would make her someone elses problem, that she then handed to girl.</p><p>“Bring this to the Improper Use of Magic Office. They need to apply the Trace, and sign it here.”</p><p>The girl looked back.</p><p>“Uhm, how do I – find that?”</p><p>“Outside the door take a right, to the lift, go to floor five, then down the hall, take the third left and you should be there.”</p><p>The girl looked confused for a moment, and Philomena wondered if she would have to write it down, but then the girl repeated the instructions. </p><p>“Right to the lift, then floor five, third left. Right?”</p><p>“Exactly. Have a nice stay.”</p><p>Philomena quickly filed away the paperwork. Now that girl would be Mafalda’s problem, and she could go back to the frankly unreasonable amount of work.</p><p>-</p><p>Maggie walked through the dark hallways, uncomfortably busy with wizards and witches of all kinds, and kept mentally repeating the instructions from the lady like a mantra. After her discussion with Dumbledore last week, they had eventually decided that Maggie would stay in Britain for now and enter Hogwarts for the next year, at least until the Headmaster found a solution to her problem. With them uncertain of her kidnappers whereabouts, it seemed like the best solution to keep her safe.</p><p>But for the summer the school was closed, and she couldn’t just live on her own for that long. So Dumbledore had contacted a few people, and found a wizarding family he deemed trustworthy that would take her in for the summer. Mr. and Mrs. Tonks had looked nice enough when they met and so far it had been a pretty decent summer, considering the circumstances.</p><p>Considering that she had been taken from her home, friends and family. That she couldn’t even contact them to tell them she was alright. The first night at the Three Broomsticks, Maggie couldn’t stop thinking about Monika, who was probably turning over every building to try and find the friend that had disappeared. And Maggie’s mother, who had probably spent day’s trying to call her, just in case she somehow answered. How her family had to be sick with worry.</p><p>Or would be sick with worry, twenty years from now. But right now, in the past that she had to call present, she was staying in Britain, and had to follow their laws.</p><p>Mrs. Tonks had insisted on doing things properly, and quickly arranged for her to get to the ministry on the next possible date. Even if that meant she couldn’t bring Maggie herself. Instead -<br/>“Oh, you’re already done? Thought that would take longer…”</p><p>Instead, she was visiting with their grown-up daughter, Nymphadora.</p><p>“Actually, I still have to bring this somewhere,” she quickly corrected and tried to recall which way she had to go, “The woman said something about a, uh, trace, I think?”</p><p>Nymphadora nodded.</p><p>“Oh, that’ll be the Yumo. That’s, um, this way.” </p><p>The witch pointed into one direction.</p><p>“Yumo?” Maggie followed, almost certain that wasn’t the right direction.</p><p>“Improper Use of Magic Office. I – U – M – O. Yumo. Just follow me.”</p><p>They ended in front of a door. It wasn’t the I.U.M.O.</p><p>“Huh. Sorry. I’m not often on this floor. Maybe the other right…”</p><p>When they first met, Nymphadora had proudly introduced herself as an Auror of the British Ministry. She had also been insistent on Maggie calling her Tonks, but given that Maggie was currently living with her parents of the same name, Maggie felt it would only lead to confusion. <br/>They turned around, and eventually found their way to the right office. Maggie handed in the paper and an older wizard took a few minutes to place the Trace on her, while rattling down the basics of the regulation, before leading her back to Nymphadora.</p><p>“Great. We’ve got this done, then?”</p><p>The wizard nodded at her. </p><p>Nymphadora – Dora, Maggie decided in her mind, Dora then told the man that she was taking her on a shopping trip and would take responsibility for the day. </p><p>A wizard nodded at that and wrote down a short note, before hefting it onto a big board filled with many small scraps of paper and parchment, most handwritten, some machine typed and a few even in painstaking calligrafy.</p><p>“You’re probably lucky my Mum didn’t have time today,” Dora told her as they stepped into the lift again. “I mean she’s great, but her sense of fashion is still a bit stuck in the sixties. You don’t want to look like your plucked from a different century, right?”</p><p>Maggie’s eyes widened slightly, then she laughed lightly to cover for her surprise.<br/>Dora didn’t know about the Time Travel. As far as she was concerned, Maggie had lost her parents in an attack by some dark wizard and had been moved to Britain for her own safety. </p><p>“No, I would not want that,” she mumbled back.</p><p>“Well, then it’s a good thing you’re with me today.”</p><p>They came towards the entrance, where a few red telephone boxes stood orderly, and Dora told her to get in. It was a bit tight, just enough space without touching.</p><p>Dora looked at the dull reflection in the glass as she dialed in a number before shortly lifting the phone and slamming it down again.</p><p>“What do you think, purple or blue?” she asked thoughtfully.</p><p>“Blue?” Maggie said, unsure what this was about.</p><p>“Mmh. I usually go for purple.”</p><p>Then Dora scrunched her face as if concentrating extra hard. And her previously brown hair turned bright blue.</p><p>“What do you think?” she asked as the phone box popped out of the ground, into muggle London.<br/>Maggie swallowed the obvious question. She had seen much more impressive magic before.</p><p>“Maybe a bit darker? It looks a bit cloudy, I guess.”</p><p>Dora nodded, and her Hair darkened down slightly.</p><p>“Mmh. Yeah, that’s better.”</p><p>They stepped out of the phone box.</p><p>“So, I guess we gotta get you out of my hand-me-downs. Ready to see London?”<br/>Maggie nodded, slowly gaining some excitement. She really hoped this city tour wouldn’t become as disastrous as the last one.</p><p>-</p><p>When Maggie had arrived, all her possessions had been the contents of her backpack and the literal clothes on her back. So despite the excitement, this shopping trip was also very needed. The outfit she was wearing now were some of Dora’s old clothes that she had long grown out of. At least in theory. As a metamorphmagus, the auror had a bit more flexibility when it came to dress size. Or facial features and general appearance.</p><p>They took their time, browsing stores, trying out what took their fancy, having a few small disagreements, with Maggie often not being entirely sure whether her guide was giving actual advice our just using her lack of knowledge to make fun of her. Then again, this was the nineties, so she hoped that her companion would know what looked good better than her.</p><p>Maggie also managed to get some new gloves, which earned some skeptical looks from Dora. But given that she would go to Hogwarts, Maggie knew those gloves would become handy if she didn’t want to spend half of her days passed out or fighting headaches. So she insisted on the gloves.</p><p>In the afternoon, Maggie got her first glance into Diagon Alley, after quickly bringing their bags to the Tonks’ home, so that Maggie could get her school-robes fitted. After spending some time on getting school supplies that weren’t specific to the third year (the official list hadn’t been sent out yet), they were too tired for anything else this day, so Tonks brought Maggie back to her current home, told her mom she didn’t want to be called Nymphadora, and ducked out again.</p><p>-</p><p>After that shopping trip, most of her summer passed by quickly and without much excitement. Most of Maggie’s time was spent learning English, with a focus on terms used in the British wizarding world, as well as reviewing two years of the Hogwarts curriculum. After taking her in and learning of her background, Mrs. Tonks had been insistent on making sure Maggie was prepared for her entry at Hogwarts, and wouldn’t spend the first few weeks of school playing catch up.</p><p>Of course, it was mostly things that Maggie had already learned. But she had learned them in a different language, with different teachers and even in different subjects. Her biggest headache on that matter turned out to be history of magic, which for some reason was taught in a different order than it was at Maggie’s old school, completely glossed over the classical period and started in the middle of the medieval period instead.</p><p>Transfiguration and Potions turned out to be mostly the same, which was good thing as those weren’t exactly her strong suit. Maggie still had to spent a whole week hitting books to relearn the name of potion ingredients and after hearing her complain about it once, Mrs. Tonks decided to give Maggie some practical training as well on the weekends. Maggie wasn’t sure why at first, but Mr. Tonks told that it was probably a matter of pride:</p><p>“Andy was a bit of a prodigy at potions when she was at Hogwarts, and she made sure Nymphadora got her Exceeds Expectation once our daughter decided to become an auror. I guess your her new ‘project’, now that Dora moved out.”</p><p>Charms was the odd one out – While Maggie knew most of the spells, the subject hadn’t existed as it’s own course at her old school, with the material being spread over a few different subjects. It was also the subject with the most different spells – unlike with the rigorous rules of transfiguration and the science of potions, charms didn’t have any international standards or regulations and were constantly innovated. So Maggie had trouble judging if she was good or bad at the subject.</p><p>Two weeks into her stay, the topic of electives came up. Muggle Studies seemed like a waste of her time and she also decided against Care of Magical Creatures early on. Ancient Runes intrigued her, and she wondered if she should take that just in case something unexpected happened and she was pushed back in time even further. Arithmancy just sounded like something she might be good at, while Divination sounded like it could maybe help her with her visions, something she had avoided to bring up with anyone so far.</p><p>Mr. Tonks advised her to give herself some slack: “This will be your first year at school, and you’ll probably have enough on your plate already.”</p><p>Mrs. Tonks, on the other hand, praised her ambition: “Yes, taking three electives will make it a bit more difficult. But from what I’ve seen so far, I think you should be okay. I mean, if it does get too much, you can still drop one of the electives later on, so there’s really no need to get stressed over this decision.”</p><p>In the end, she went with Mrs. Tonks advice, choosing Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Divination, so she could at least try them out first.</p><p>The Tonks’ daughter also visited regularly, mostly to talk to her parents, but she eventually convinced them to let her take Maggie into London to teach her a bit about her current home, ‘After all she can’t stay stuck in the house all summer, can she?’, which also led to Maggie learning a few words and expressions she made sure never to use in front of Mr. and Mrs. Tonks.<br/>And so the weeks passed by, filled with homework and books and the odd excursion into the city, until they reached the end of August.</p><p>This monotony was disrupted on the 18th, with the finale of the World Cup.</p><p>-</p><p>Maggie was searching for the necklace. After arriving here, she had decided that keeping the key on her at all times was probably a good idea, so she had carried it on her body almost without pause, only taking it off when absolutely necessary. Then, after Dora had asked her about, Maggie had fashioned it into the centerpiece of a necklace, just so it would be less recognizable.<br/>And now it was gone. She had taken it off in her room before taking a shower, and now couldn’t find it. After thoroughly searching her room, the bathroom and the staircase, she decided to look in the living room, even if she knew she hadn’t left it there.</p><p>She found Edward Tonks, a tall, middle-aged wizard with short blonde hair. He was listening to the wizarding wireless, where a commentator described word for word the progress of the World Cup, ‘… and another ten points for the Irish team, leaving the Bulgarians behind with a difference of 140 points, but now Dobrev takes the ball, can he make it through the Irish defense…’.<br/>Maggie hastily scanned the room, hoping to spot the missing key.</p><p>“Are you looking for something?” Mr. Tonks asked, turning down the radio.<br/>“My necklace. I thought I left it in my room, but now I can’t find it anywhere.”<br/>“Mmh. No, I don’t think I have seen that anywhere. Have you checked under the cupboard down left from the house door? The small stuff usually ends up in there, for some reason.”<br/>Maggie knit her brows. “I guess a look can’t hurt.”<br/>Mr. Tonks nodded, and turned the radio back on, just in time to hear the host describe how the seekers had started their race for the snitch.<br/>Maggie crouched down in the entrance hall to look under the cupboard. There was definitely something glittering down there. She reached with her arm and felt for whatever she had seen glitter there. Her hand found something that did kinda feel like her necklace. She grabbed it softly and pulled back.</p><p>Huh, Mr. Tonks had been right. That was her necklace. She dropped it as she heard a sudden shout from the living room. The man on the radio kept rambling about the unexpected end to the game, with Victor Krum catching the snitch but Ireland still winning the game. And then there was a weird static coming from the radio, Mr. Tonks tapped the device a few times, confused as to why it was suddenly malfunctioning, and then - </p><p>-</p><p>Maggie woke up, just remembering the last remnants of her dream. Her hand shot to her collar – the necklace was still there. The necklace she had fashioned so she could keep the Key on her person at all times without raising suspicion. In her dream she had lost it, and then there was something about the radio, Ireland winning against Bulgaria in some weird way - “Ugh.” Maggie grunted, when she moved her head and was suddenly hit with a headache. </p><p>She decided to just stay in bed a bit longer, soon forgetting about that weird dream again.<br/>At the breakfast table, Mr. Tonks kept talking excitedly about the upcoming Quidditch Finale.<br/>“I mean, Ireland has the better average, but Bulgaria has been surprising everyone this year.”<br/>Maggie took a long sip from her tea, a herbal blend that Mr. Tonks had put on the moment he heard of her headache. “Tea’s good.” she mumbled. “Ireland wins,” she added, feeling pretty certain.<br/>“Not if Bulgaria catches the snitch first, I would say.”</p><p>Maggie shrugged. Ireland would win, that she knew already. She had already -<br/>Wait, no, that had just been that weird dream. The Irish team had won in her dream, but now that she thought about, she was pretty sure that Krum would catch the snitch. So, a win for Bulgaria.<br/>She looked around the table, Mrs. Tonks was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>“Andy’s got an early shift at St. Mungo’s,” Mr. Tonks explained. “So, what is the plan for today?”<br/>Maggie thought about that for a moment. She had finished learning her potion ingredients, felt somewhat confident with History, and so far hadn’t had any problems with learning new charms. A week before, Nymphadora had tested her on DADA and Transfiguration, after Mr. Tonks had proclaimed her Astronomy knowledge to be fully proficient for a new third year.</p><p>“I guess I could still review Herbology,” she muttered, not feeling enthusiastic about the prospect.<br/>“Or you could take a break today.” </p><p>Maggie perked up, but then thought back to a school-year of information she had yet to review.<br/>“Hey, no need to worry. I know Professor Sprout, she’s not someone who would fail you for not remembering a few plant names, okay? Honestly, if you keep it up like this, you’re gonna be better prepared than most of your classmates.”</p><p>That did make sense. Thinking about it, she definitely hadn’t planned to spend her summer learning.<br/>“Huh. I guess I can take a break then.”</p><p> </p><p>She leaned back and bit into her toast, not quite sure what to do with a full day to herself. She looked to Mr. Tonks.</p><p>“What about you? What are you plans for today?”</p><p>“Well, I’ve still got a week before I get back to work. There’s the Quidditch Finale this afternoon, of course. But I could also bring out the guitar for a bit, maybe work on a song or two. Of course, if you want to join in on that, I wouldn’t mind some company.”<br/>Maggie shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”</p><p>They ended their breakfast, and Maggie slumped back onto the bed, enjoying the moment where  she didn’t have to do anything. Now that she lay here, just sinking back into sleep felt way too tempting…</p><p>-</p><p>A few hours later, Maggie woke to a guitar playing a floor below. There had been no weird dreams this time, and her head felt clearer than it had in a long time. She decided to visit downstairs for a bit, joining in on the singing for once.</p><p>After half an hour or so, she had enough of his company and decided to go back up again. While the day had started at agreeable temperatures, the heat of the late summer had returned with a vengeance now. Maggie decided to take a shower.</p><p>After picking out her outfit, Maggie undressed – and stopped when she noticed the necklace. The one she had lost in her dreams, only for it to reappear under a cupboard. She usually took it off to shower, not wanting the metal to get rusty (if it could even get rusty – Maggie wasn’t entirely sure what material the key was made from). </p><p>She decided to leave it on, hoping that a bit of water wouldn’t damage it.</p><p>-</p><p>After showering, she dried herself of, but left her hair a bit damp, hoping it would help keep her cool a bit longer. After getting dressed, she opened the window in her room to let in some fresh air, and leaned back onto her bed, again thinking about what to do with the rest of her day.<br/>She still had that one book…</p><p>No, Maggie reminded herself. She had already decided that reading that would probably be a bad idea. It was too much of a temptation to just try and fix everything she thought needed fixing. And according to every story about time travel ever written, that was probably a bad idea and could only end in disaster.</p><p>Which is why she wouldn’t read the book that described all of the big and small events that would happen at Hogwarts over the next couple of years. Keeping her secrets would be hard enough without that knowledge, so no reason to make things harder on her than they already were.</p><p>(She had at one point flipped forward, hoping there would be something about tests. There wasn’t. The book wouldn’t help her cheat. Which was a good thing. Yes. A good thing.)</p><p>She sighed. There wasn’t all that much to do here, and she didn’t really have any friends now -<br/>Nope, not going there, she chastised herself, no dark thoughts about losing family and friends today.</p><p>Today was supposed to be good.</p><p>Today was supposed to be a break from her homework.</p><p>Today was supposed to be-</p><p> </p><p>Today was supposed to be a fun day.</p><p> </p><p>A fun day.</p><p>Maggie stopped as memories rushed in at that thought.</p><p>She slumped onto the bed, as the feelings suddenly came back, big and heavy, to heavy to be ignored.</p><p>It had been over a month now. A month of being stuck in the past. A month since she had seen her friend, since she had last seen her mother. </p><p>A month stuck in this strange country. Different foods, different people, different timezone. Maggie curled up and closed her eyes, taking a shaky breath. She should be happy, right? She’d gotten lucky. She got a place to stay, people that looked out for her…</p><p>But it wasn’t home.</p><p>It wasn’t her place. Not her people. Her eyes stung, and she pressed them more tightly, forcing out the first tear.</p><p>In the distance, she heard a shout and some exited exclamations downstairs. She flinched, but couldn’t find the energy to stand up and go look what had happened. The Tonks did everything to look after her. But they weren’t her parents. This wasn’t her home. They couldn’t fix this.<br/>She heard someone move up the stairs quickly. Then a knock on her door, before it opened, with Mr. Tonks excitedly talking about the Irish victory -</p><p>- and stopping. Maggie quickly wiped away her tears, and tried keep herself composed when she turned around.</p><p>“Maggie? Did something happen?” he asked and looked at her with concern.</p><p>Maggie shook her head. “No, it’s nothing,” she lied and averted her eyes, studying the blank wall.<br/>It was a terrible lie. Her eyes were red, her face still flushed and she couldn’t quite suppress the tremble in her lips. Mr. Tonks looked as if he wanted to rush over, but he stopped himself at the door.</p><p>“Do you want me to come in?” he asked instead.</p><p>Maggie hesitated. Then nodded. “Okay,” she said in a weak voice.</p><p>Mr. Tonks slowly walked in, and carefully moved a chair beside her bed before sitting down.</p><p>“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked in a gentle voice.</p><p>Maggie looked at him and shrugged, not sure what to say.<br/>She took a deep breath, deciding to try.</p><p>“I’m not – I – it’s just so much. I know I should be happy, I mean, I got lucky, right? But I just, I just miss it all, miss everything so much, and I,” she needed to take a break to sniff, “I guess now that I have time to think about it it’s all there and I can’t stop thinking about it all, that I can’t – can’t go back.” </p><p>She took a breath.</p><p>“You’re homesick. And you went through a lot in those past few months. There’s nothing bad about not feeling happy now, okay, Maggie?”</p><p>“But I,” she swallowed thickly. “I wasn’t like this in my other school. That wasn’t home, either. But it also didn’t feel like this.”</p><p>Mr. Tonks sighed.</p><p>“Yes, but that was the culture you grew up in, right? You had friends there, didn’t you?”<br/>Maggie nodded. “Yes. A pretty good friend, actually.”</p><p>“And you didn’t have to deal with the culture shock then.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>They both felt silent for a moment.<br/>Then Mr. Tonks stood up, and summoned a glass of water that he put onto her nightstand.</p><p>“Here, you should probably drink something. Andy wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if you dry out on my watch.”</p><p>Maggie snorted, but sat up to take a sip. She did feel pretty parched.</p><p>“Thank you, Mr. Tonks.”</p><p>He rolled his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Ted?”</p><p>Maggie took another sip.</p><p>“Okay. Ted.”</p><p>A deep gulp.</p><p>Ted stood up, looking around awkwardly.</p><p>“Well, I think it’s about time for dinner. Andy’s gonna be home soon, so I better get started.”<br/>He walked to the door, and turned around.<br/>“If you need anything, don’t hesitate to come to us, okay Maggie? We may not be your parents, but we still care for you.”</p><p>Maggie took a breath, and another gulp.<br/>“Okay. I will.”</p><p>He nodded, and gave her a last encouraging look before closing the door.</p><p>-</p><p>When she walked down for dinner, Mrs. Tonks – Andy took one look at her, looking serious, and enveloped her in a hug. Despite feeling mostly okay again, Maggie suddenly broke  out in tears again at the human contact, and allowed the witch to just hold her for a few moments. After dinner, Ted brought out a tub of ice-cream, giving Maggie an extra large serving.</p><p>The rest of the evening was spent together, with the Tonks’ bringing out a few old board games and card games. Andy started telling a few stories from her time at Hogwarts, as well as a few ones about her daughter, who was currently part of the security at the world cup, where the Irish where celebrating their swift victory. </p><p>Then Maggie also started telling a few of her own stories, reminiscing and remembering fondly her adventures since she was given her wand two years ago, about Monika and her old school.<br/>Eventually it got too late and Maggie had to go to bed, feeling spent, but a little less hopeless. Maybe being stuck here didn’t have to be so bad.<br/>-<br/>The next morning, Maggie went down to breakfast, and was surprised to Nymphadora sitting there, looking uncharacteristically serious, her hair a dull brown, dark rings under her eyes and speaking hastily and in hushed tones.</p><p>“Mornin’ Dora.”</p><p>Nymphadora barely looked up, just gave a halfhearted ‘morning’ before looking back to her father and continuing talking. Weird. She hadn’t even reacted to not being called Tonks.</p><p>Maggie sat down at the table. “Did something happen?”</p><p>The adults suddenly stopped and looked at her.</p><p>Ted shook his head slowly while looking at his daughter. Dora rolled her eyes.<br/>“She’s gonna find out anyway, Dad.”</p><p>What good mood had been left from a good night of sleep quickly dissipated.<br/>“What’s going on?”</p><p>Ted sighed, but didn’t actually answer her questions. Dora grabbed the newspaper and put it on Maggie’s plate.<br/>‘Dark Mark over the Quidditch World Cup’</p><p>There was black and white picture with the article, the light slowly shifting against the printed sky.<br/>Maggie cursed, forgetting about her host for moment.</p><p>Dora’s lips ticked up slightly, while Ted seemed content to ignore that for now.</p><p>“Yeah. Ruddy Death Eaters got cocky and went around torturing those poor muggles and terrorizing everyone else. It’s all a big mess, honestly. Mum flew over last night, to help with the injured, and I’ll have to get back to the ministry in a few minutes to give my report to Kingsley. They’ll start an investigation, but knowing our lovely relatives, that probably won’t go far enough to touch their shadows.”</p><p>“Relatives?” Maggie asked.</p><p>“Mum’s a pureblood, from a Noble and Most Ancient House. Nothing to be proud about, considering they threw her out when she married Dad. But you can trust me, under those masks were some of the most illustrious members of pureblood society, and I’d bet my arse that my least favourite Uncle was one of them. Only it’s gonna take a miracle for us to actually arrest him for anything.”</p><p>“Nymphadora, you can’t just say that.”</p><p>“Dad, we’re talking about Malfoy. Everyone knows the only reason he isn’t sitting in Azkaban is because he had enough money and power to buy his ‘innocence’. Imperius my ass.”</p><p>“I’m not defending him. But as you said. Lucius is a powerful man. Don’t get involved, Dora.”<br/>Nymphadora sighed.</p><p>“I’m not stupid, Dad. I just hate the situation.”<br/>She checked her watch.<br/>“Aaand I gotta go, if I don’t wanna get heat for coming in late.”</p><p>She stood up quickly, and was soon out of the door.</p><p>Maggie stared at the newspaper, the Dark Mark still moving, swaying.</p><p>She thought about the war.</p><p>The war that had happened</p><p>And the war that was still to come.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I'm not entirely happy with this one, especially the shopping trip, but I didn't want to get stuck on this chapter because of that.</p><p>Book 4 has this weird moment of the Weasley twins making an insane bet with Ludo Bagman, that is never fully explained. The situation really reeks of either time-turner-shenanigans or divination, which is what inspired one scene in this.</p><p>We'll get to the Hogwarts Express next time, which will involve a lot of OCs and minor characters.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. An Old Hat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The summer ends, and Maggie enters Hogwarts.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the attack on the Quidditch World Cup, a palpable tension hang in the air that kept everyone on edge, most of all Maggie, who knew that there was still a war to come.</p><p>No matter what reassurances they gave her, it couldn’t chase away the bad feeling. She grew up in a time where Voldemort had been history, and most of his followers had been apprehended for their crimes. The Second British Wizarding War had been something she could look at from a distance.</p><p>That distance was gone now. Voldemort was alive (or at least not dead), and his followers were going around sowing terror and chaos. This was happening not in the past, not in some other country she only heard about in the news, but here and now.</p><p>(Had she made a mistake in taking Dumbledore’s offer?)</p><p>The last few weeks of summer turned into a waiting game, with Maggie listening to the news intently, expecting something to happen.</p><p>Nothing did.</p><p>The investigation into the events at the Quidditch World Cup didn’t lead to any arrests, the official story being that some house-elf had stolen a wand and cast the spell – Maggie hadn’t even been aware that the house-elf enslavement was still so widespread in the 1990s – but the people torturing and humiliating those muggles were never identified, leaving the bigger crimes unsolved. (And Dora made no attempt to hide her frustration at that.)</p><p>Eventually, the end of the month approached, and it became time for Maggie to prepare for Hogwarts.</p><p>She was used to packing her suitcases the day before, especially since her mother didn’t allow her to use any magic at home. But with Andy’s help, the whole process took barely five minutes. The witch just said a few spells, flicked her wand a few times, and Maggie’s clothes folded themselves and packed themselves orderly into the trunk, before books and the rest of her stuff followed, leaving the room a bit bare and almost too clean.</p><p>Living in London meant that getting to King’s Cross didn’t take all that long, so Maggie got a full night of sleep and breakfast before they left for the station, Maggie putting ticket and wand securely into her backpack and stepped in front of the mirror to make sure she looked presentable. The necklace was there, her hair secured in a ponytail, her clothes clean, her uniform folded neatly and stored in her bag.</p><p>Good enough for a first day of school, right?</p><p>She heard Andromeda call her down. The train would leave at nine, with or without her. Maggie took one last look at her guest room, not knowing if she would ever return, then followed Andy’s voice down.</p><p>The older witch examined her quickly, and nodded approvingly, before they left the house.</p><p>King’s Cross Station was busy as ever, with a mix of locals and tourists filling the platform, leaving just enough room to avoid each other if you weren’t in too much of a hurry. Of course, half the people here clearly were, making it into a much more of challenge, and Maggie tightened her grip on her luggage cart. Why one would hide the entrance in an area so packed with Muggles, Maggie didn’t quite understand, but Andy assured her that this was the right way towards platform 9 ¾.</p><p>“All you have to do is face this column, and walk through, confidently, then you’ll be on the platform.”</p><p>Maggie nodded, looking at the brick wall that looked very much like a solid brick wall. But this was magic. She could do this. She tightened the grip around the handle of her luggage cart and build up a bit of speed, suppressing her reflex to slow down when the wall came closer and her mind warned her of the impending crash. The Wall isn’t there, The Wall isn’t there, she repeated in her mind.</p><p>Then her cart started disappearing into the wall, and her false confidence turned into certainty. The wall wasn’t there. She strode forward and was swallowed by darkness, a weird prickly feeling on her face and hands, that thankfully disappeared shortly after she exited onto another platform, this one filled with wizards, witches and children of all sizes, many clothed in weird combinations of muggle clothing while a few were wearing full on cloaks and witch hats.</p><p>And then, there was the train. A long line of wagons, and the big, red steam engine further in the distance. Maggie was sure she had never seen anything like it outside of a museum, or maybe on the pages of a storybook. Why they were using a train in the first place, she wasn’t entirely sure, when magic offered so many faster options.</p><p>“See, that wasn’t difficult, was it?” Andromeda said, appearing from behind her.</p><p>Slowly, the excitement started to grow again. She was going to Hogwarts. She was learning magic again. “Yeah, it wasn’t,” she mumbled, as she pushed her luggage cart along.</p><p>“Umm, do I take my luggage just into the cabin or …” she wondered aloud.</p><p>Andromeda steered her to one side. “There’s a luggage wagon at the end, you can put your trunk there, but I would take the bag with you, you’ll be expected to change into your cloak and uniform before you arrive at Hogsmeade.”</p><p>They stood at the door, and Andy helped Maggie lift the trunk up the stairs, and they stood for a moment.</p><p>“If you have any problems, don’t hesitate to go to your teachers, okay? Or you can write to us, the school always has some owls free for that.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>Andromeda gave her a hug. It was nice. She stepped back.</p><p>“You’ll do great, Maggie. I know it.</p><p>“Thanks, Andy.”</p><p>“I hope you have a wonderful school year, and I’m sure everything will work out, don’t worry.”</p><p>Maggie nodded.</p><p>“I’d better take care of this,” she said awkwardly at the trunk, gave a last awkward wave to Andromeda, and stepped into the train.</p><p>-</p><p>After taking care of her luggage, Maggie stalked the corridor, looking for an empty compartment. Unsuccessfully.</p><p>She clearly wasn’t the only one looking, though most of the other children she saw now were a good head smaller than her. First years, presumably. She found herself at one end of the train, took a look into a compartment, were a bunch of students with green ties and black cloaks were sitting. They didn’t look very welcoming.</p><p>She turned around, resigning herself to finding someone that looked a bit more friendly. </p><p>No not those, they looked almost like grown ups, and probably wouldn’t want her in there. </p><p>The next compartment was also full, and Maggie moved on.</p><p>This one was full of first years, and that wasn’t how Maggie wanted to start her year. </p><p>Glancing into windows, she kept walking through the train, her attention soon slipping. She felt indecisive as she was trying to figure out who wouldn’t just laugh her out, but also didn’t want to spend the train ride with literal children that only came up to her chin. She was a teenager now, after all.</p><p>She was already on her third round, when she suddenly heard a knock from behind her. She turned around. The compartment door opened and a boy stuck his head out. “You’re still looking for a compartment?” He seemed to be around her age, or maybe a year older. </p><p>“Yeah, uhm, I guess.”</p><p>“You’re new, aren’t you?”</p><p>Maggie nodded.</p><p>“Well, if you don’t find anything, we still got a seat free in here.”</p><p>Maggie stepped closer to take a look into the compartment. There was another boy and two girls, all of them looking to be of similar ages.</p><p>She looked down the corridor one last time, and made her decision.<br/>“If you really don’t mind.”</p><p>The boy stepped back and made some space for her to get in and put her bag up.</p><p>“Nah, wouldn’t want to shame our house and not offer hospitality, would we. I’m Ernie, by the way. Hufflepuff.</p><p>“Maggie,” she answered, “I haven’t been sorted yet.”</p><p>“But your not a first year?” a girl asked, the younger of the two.</p><p>“Diane, don’t be rude.” the taller girl said. “I’m Megan, by the way, also Hufflepuff. Why don’t you sit down first.”</p><p>Maggie did.</p><p>“I’m a transfer, I guess. I studied at Falkenstein, but now I had to move here to Britain and, um, change school. I’m starting my third year.”</p><p>“Your from the continent, then?” the younger girl, Diane asked.</p><p>“Continent? I mean, I’m from the Rhine Region, in Germany.”</p><p>“I didn’t even know Hogwarts takes transfers,” Diane said.</p><p>“Carlos is a transfer.” the second boy interjected, not looking up from his book.</p><p>“Wait, really?”</p><p>“Yeah, he entered for his fourth year. You just didn’t notice because you were a first year then.” Megan said. “The book-worm is Frank, by the way.”</p><p>Said boy looked up shortly and nodded, before getting back to ignoring them.</p><p>“So, what was your old school like? I mean, I’ve heard some things about those schools. Do you really study black magic there?”</p><p>“What? No! Of course we don’t study ‘black magic’ at school.”</p><p>“Well, I’ve heard they do teach the dark arts at Durmstrang.” Diane insisted.</p><p>“And I’m not from Durmstrang. I’m from Falkenstein. Durmstarng isn’t even in Germany. And I definitely wasn’t learning the dark arts,” she huffed.</p><p>“Diane, you’re doing it again.” Megan said to the younger Hufflepuff.</p><p>“Doing what … Oh,” the girl deflated slightly. “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to be rude. I just, my cousin told me how they had different rules on the continent, and with Durmstrang, and it really wasn’t meant at something against you, really, I’m not saying your a dark witch or something, I was just curious, is all - “</p><p>Maggie raised her hand. “Um, could you, maybe slow down a bit? English isn’t my first language.”</p><p>“Oh right.” Diane stopped herself. “I didn’t want to insult you, is all I’m saying,” she enunciated, maybe a little bit slower than necessary.</p><p>Maggie leaned back a bit.</p><p>“It’s okay, I guess.”</p><p>She thought for a moment.</p><p>“I mean, I could tell a few things about my old school, if that’s – if you want to hear about that.”</p><p>“And you can ask us anything about Hogwarts, just to make it fair.” Ernie added.</p><p>Maggie smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”</p><p>-</p><p>They exchanged stories and anecdotes for the next hour or so, before it became to exhausting for Maggie and she needed a break from it. Megan switched places with her, allowing her to watch the landscape pass by the window, and doze off for a bit.</p><p>At some point a witch came by to sell sweets and foods from her trolley, and Ernie decided that Maggie needed to be introduced to the chaos of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. It started out underwhelming with woodruff, her second bean was a rare treat of caramel, but her luck stopped at three. Disgusted, she let the bean drop from her tongue. “I think that was charcoal.”</p><p>When the sun started to dip a bit, the boys were momentarily banished from the compartment so the girls could slip into their school uniforms. They were different than at her old school. While there were some outfit requirements for certain subjects, they didn’t really have a uniform.</p><p>“So, any idea what house you’ll be in?” Megan asked while closing some buttons.</p><p>Maggie made a noncommittal noise. “I mean, does it really matter all that much.” She fought a bit with her tie, not used to having to wear a tie at school.</p><p>Diane stopped suddenly, her hands holding her shoelaces.</p><p>“Of course it matters? It’s your House! Didn’t you have houses at your old school?”</p><p>“I mean, yes? But it’s just were you live, right? So I don’t get -”</p><p>“What about Housepoints?”</p><p>“Housepoints?”</p><p>“For the House Cup?”</p><p>“House Cup? Sorry, I don’t think I know what that means.”</p><p>“Let me help.” Megan stepped in front of her and helped adjust her tie. “The House Cup is this yearly competition between the students of the four houses. Our teachers award us points for being good students, and deduct points as punishment. There, that should work.”</p><p>“Yep. Also, there’s this rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor, so they keep messing with each other. So if you don’t want to get caught up in this, you should better stick with us Puffs, we try to keep out of that,” Diane said, finishing up her shoes.</p><p>“Huh. Is there a price for winning?”</p><p>Megan looked to Diane. “Not really. It’s mostly bragging rights, I’d say.”</p><p>“Well, we don’t have Housepoints at Falkenstein, and there weren’t any official competitions. Of course, that didn’t stop the occasional pranks and stuff, but we had to do all of that behind the teachers backs.”</p><p>“So, what house were you in?”</p><p>“Oh, I’m a Falcon. There’s two houses, the rooms where you sleep, um…  “</p><p>“Dormitories.”</p><p>“Dormitories, okay, there’s two dormitories, the Tower, which is older, and the Riverhouse. We from the tower called ourselves the Falcons, and the people from the Riverhouse called themselves … it’s some kind of predatory fish, I’m not sure about the English word right now, but we just called them Fish anyway.<br/>So yeah, I’m a Falcon,” Maggie finished</p><p>“Well, if you want to live in a tower, you’ll have to go with Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. But I really hope you can join us Badgers tonight.”</p><p>There was a knock at the door,</p><p>“Are you done in there?”</p><p>Megan looked at Diane, then at Maggie.</p><p>“Should we let them in?”</p><p>-</p><p>As the train entered the Scottish Highlands, the sky darkened quickly, and it wasn’t just the setting sun. Heavy clouds approached, soon pelting the train in heavy rain drops and filling the cabin with it’s steady and unpredictable rhythm.</p><p>For a short moment, the setting sun illuminated the storm clouds in brilliant hues, before it dipped completely behind the horizon and the warm light disappeared with it, leaving only a sudden darkness, rarely broken by the cool light of distant lightning.</p><p>They sat in darkness for a short moment, before the lights went on. Maggie looked out at the rain glumly. They would soon arrive at Hogsmeade station, and it didn’t look like the rain would end anytime soon.</p><p>It didn’t.</p><p>Ten minutes later, the train started to slow down with screaming brakes, still gliding through sheets of rain and darkness. Looking out, she could just about make out a few distant lights, and then the lanterns of the station came into sight as the train came to a halt.</p><p>A few seconds, and Maggie stood up, as did more or less everyone else on the train.</p><p>“So, how do we get to the castle?” she asked into the room, as they waited for the corridor to clear up a bit. No one was all that eager to get out right now, anyway.</p><p>“A bit outside the station, there should be a few dozen carriages that’ll bring us to the castle.”</p><p>The corridor was a bit less busy now, and the group left their compartment. Maggie went left, but was stopped by Megan.</p><p>“Hey, the door is that way.”</p><p>“Um, my luggage…?”</p><p>“Don’t worry about that, the house-elves take care of that.”</p><p>“Oh. Okay.”</p><p>She followed her group to the door. So Hogwarts had house-elves. Weird.</p><p>Stepping out, there wasn’t even much of roof, and the pavement was silvery from the water. Megan and Ernie exchanged a look and both drew their wands, raised them up and recited a spell.</p><p>Above them, the rain started to run down an invisible surface. An umbrella spell. Useful. Maggie, Frank and Diane huddled themselves in between them to avoid the icy rain, and they left the station.<br/>To one side, Maggie saw a giant of a man hold up a lantern and shout. “First years this year.”</p><p>“Oh, right. First years get the boat ride. I guess you could join them? I mean you are a new student, right?” Diane elbowed her.</p><p>Maggie didn’t leave her spot in the group.</p><p>“Ask me again when we’re not drowning on land.”</p><p>Ernie chuckled, and a sudden deluge hit them, leaving only Megan and Frank dry.<br/>“Sorry.”</p><p>Once they were finally in the carriage, they dried themselves off with a few spells, sending the water out of the window. As if drawn by an invisible force, their carriage started moving once they closed the door and were all squeezed onto the benches. They drove along a stone paved road that wound itself through a dark forest, before passing a big ornate iron gate, after which the landscape opened up and the castle came into view, windows twinkling with warm lights and looming atop a hill.</p><p>Hogwarts. The place she would call home for now. It was far from the first castle she had seen. But it might have been the biggest, quite a bit bigger than the one she had learned in until now, if she was honest.</p><p>She glance around at the other students, sitting shoulder to shoulder, their clothes still damp from their way here. Maybe she could go to Hufflepuff. At least then, she would know someone already.</p><p>-</p><p>They entered the great hall, which was lit by thousands of floating candles. The ceiling disappeared into dark, rolling clouds, the silver strings of illusory rain trapped above them.</p><p>Maggie followed her maybe friends to the table on the right, not thinking much about the significance of the four tables. The hall was already pretty full when she sat down, a sea of students in dark cloaks, many of them still wet from the rain.</p><p>Putting her hands down onto the table, she felt a slight hum that tickled something in the back of her mind. Her finger traced the wood grain, and the noise of hundreds of conversations grew steadily -</p><p>Maggie pulled her hands back as if burnt, and looked around, happy to still find familiar faces, and even happier that she had managed to avoid the headache.</p><p>Right, she had forgotten to put on her gloves. She had to be careful. This school was roughly a thousand years old and had hosted thousands of wizards and witches. Even the tables held some history here.</p><p>She searched her pockets, feeling a bit calmer when she found those thin gloves. Should she put them on now? They weren’t part of the uniform, and people might give her some weird looks.</p><p>“Wait, you aren’t a Hufflepuff!” someone suddenly said. Maggie looked up at a boy, not much older than her.</p><p>“Leave it, Justin. She’s a transfer,” Ernie quickly answered.</p><p>“Oh, so she’s been sorted yet?”</p><p>Suddenly, everyone was looking at her.</p><p>“No?”</p><p>“Well, shouldn’t you be with the first years then?”</p><p>“I’m a third year. Maybe?” Suddenly, she felt a bit panicky.</p><p>“Justin, have you seen the weather out there? Honestly, can you really blame her to skip out on the boats?”</p><p>“Wait, do I have to go somewhere else now?” she asked quickly, afraid she had already messed up.</p><p>“Don’t worry, the whole things happening in here anyway.”</p><p>“But the first years are supposed to wait outside,” Justin said, “I’m not gonna explain to McGonagall why she’s missing a student.”</p><p>Maggie glanced towards the door, where students where still entering.</p><p>“They’re still on their way here anyway, Justin.”</p><p>Justin still looked miffed.</p><p>“So, how does the whole sorting thing work, anyway? Is there like a quiz, or some test, or is it just random?”</p><p>“Nah, you just have to put on this old hat, which will then shout out whatever house you belong in,” a girl nearby answered.</p><p>“An old hat?”</p><p>Now Justin kept looking nervously towards the door, clearly uncomfortable.</p><p>“How old?” Maggie asked.</p><p>“I think it’s been here since the founders left, so almost a thousand years, I think?”</p><p>Maggie gulped, when she suddenly realized.</p><p>A thousand year old magical artifact.</p><p>That had gone through the hands of thousands of wizards and witches.</p><p>That she was supposed to touch and put onto her head.</p><p>“And that’s the only way to get sorted?” she asked, already knowing the answer.</p><p>“Why would you need a different way?”</p><p>Not caring about any weird looks anymore, she took out the gloves and put them on. Maybe they would help. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she feared. Maybe she wouldn’t just pass out in front of the whole school, just because someone wanted her to put on an old hat.</p><p>There were weird looks from everyone except Justin, who suddenly stood up and stalked towards the entrance, where an older witch with stern eyes and an emerald green cloak had just entered, her eyes quickly scanning the tables. </p><p>Maggie turned back to her table, and saw everyone looking at her with questioning eyes.</p><p>But before she had time to come up with an excuse, someone called her name in a stern voice.</p><p>“Miss Alster.”</p><p>“Yes?” </p><p>Justin had returned, bringing the green witch with him. She didn’t look happy.</p><p>“If you would please come with me, we’re trying to get ready for the sorting ceremony.”</p><p>Maggie stood up, and followed the woman back towards the door.</p><p>“Do you have any idea how much trouble you have made us? Hagrid spent a quarter hour searching the train because of a missing student.”</p><p>“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t – I mean, he only talked about first years.”</p><p>“You’re lucky that you haven’t been sorted yet, or your house would start the year with negative points.”</p><p>The Sorting, right.</p><p>The ancient hat she was supposed to put on, that might lead to her passing out in front of everyone.</p><p>“Do I have to put on the hat?” she asked quickly.</p><p>“So you already know about the ceremony.”</p><p>They went through the door. Outside, they were greeted by a gaggle of first years, most of them a head smaller than her.</p><p>The witch nodded at them and led Maggie around a corner.</p><p>“Getting sorted by the hat is a thousand year old tradition, Miss Alster. Is there any particular reason why you wouldn’t want to participate in that?”</p><p>Maggie had to guess at ‘participate’, but the context seemed clear enough. She wrecked her head trying to find an excuse that wasn’t I’m afraid I’ll pass out. She hadn’t even told Dumbledore about her condition yet.</p><p>“Well – I – it’s just...” </p><p>“Miss Alster, if this just nervousness, there is really nothing to be worried about. The houses may have their reputations, but each one has produced very capable and successful witches and wizards. Since we’re going alphabetical, it’ll be over before you know it.”</p><p>This didn’t calm her down at all. Maggie began wringing her hands and pacing. She would be one of the first, and then she would pass out, and everyone would be waiting and watching.</p><p>“I – I – I just, couldn’t I do it maybe not in front of the school?”</p><p>The professor cocked an eyebrow.</p><p>“That would be highly irregular, Miss Alster.”</p><p>That was a no, right? She wouldn’t get out of that without giving something away.<br/>Well, all that was left was bit of honesty.</p><p>“I’m afraid I’ll pass out,” she said meekly.</p><p>The professors annoyance turned to concern.</p><p>“That’s not gonna -”</p><p>“It will. I’m gonna put on this hat, and pass out, and everyone will look at me and make fun -”</p><p>“Miss Alster.” the professor interrupted her.</p><p>“You’re not going to pass out. And if, if something like that should happen, I will be right there to intervene okay?”</p><p>Maggie looked at her and nodded, still not completely reassured.</p><p>The witch gestured for her to follow and led her to the first years.</p><p>“Wait here in front of the door. You’ll enter the great hall soon. When you do, line up in alphabetical order and wait until your name is called.” she addressed the new students, before slipping back into the great hall.</p><p>-</p><p>Soon enough, they were let into the great hall, and lined up in the corridor in the middle of the hall, with Maggie sticking out slightly. The professor with the green cloak carefully placed the old hat carefully on a chair in the middle of the hall, then took a step back.</p><p>Maggie already prepared herself to hear her name get called, but Professor McGonagall stayed silent for now.</p><p>Instead, the hat began to move slowly, the old leather rising and its folds forming into the rough approximation of a mouth and heavy eyebrows.</p><p>Then, it started singing.</p><p>It’s song told about the virtues of the founders, the namesakes of the four houses. It sang about about hard times. It sang about the divide between the houses, and the need for unity in the face of hardship. It ended the song with again talking about the founders and how the hat would sort the students in their stead.</p><p>The Great Hall rang with applause, and Maggie started to tense a bit as she saw McGonagall roll out a large parchment and step forward.</p><p>“When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool,” she addressed them. “When the hat announces your house, you will go and sit at the appropriate table.”</p><p>And then it started.</p><p>“Ackerly, Stewart!”</p><p>A boy walked forward, trembling and looking almost as bad as Maggie felt. He picked up the Sorting Hat, and sat down for a short moment.</p><p>The Hat didn’t take long.</p><p>“RAVENCLAW!” it shouted to the hall.</p><p>Stewart quickly pulled off the hat and left it back on the stool, before hurrying over to the second table on the right, where he was greeted with applause. Maggie’s heart quickened, knowing there would be no more stalling.</p><p>“Alster, Margret.”</p><p>Maggie took a deep breath and fiddled with her gloves one last time, before stepping forward and warily approaching the hat.</p><p>Professor McGonagall gave her an encouraging nod, which didn’t help much. But at least the witch was nearby.</p><p>A deep breath. Maggie picked up the hat carefully, only touching it through her gloves, before sitting down, the hat held out in front of her. The hall suddenly seemed to contain more people than ever, and Maggie didn’t know if it was just the nerves or somehow related to the magical artifact she was holding.</p><p>This was it.</p><p>Moment of truth.</p><p>Maggie took a deep breath, and looked around at the people, barely making out Ernie somewhere in the distance, looking for something to anchor herself.</p><p>She carefully put on the hat, letting it barely touch her head. She felt a slight prickle, her hands still at the brim, and something that felt like a distant hum in the back of her head.</p><p>“Oh my, that is curious,” she heard a voice in her mind.</p><p>She put her hands down onto the stool and clawed onto the rim, as the humming became a buzz, a melody – the room in front of her slowly changing, against her attempts to stay in the here and now.</p><p>“Very curious. It’s been long time since I sorted anyone with your particular talent,” the hat continued talking, directly into her head.</p><p>Please, can we just get this over with, Maggie thought to herself, trying to force herself back into reality. She could still feel the stool in her hands, and hoped that meant she hadn’t dropped to the ground like a sack of sand yet. But the room in front of her also looked a lot smaller than she knew it was, the people began to look different as well, continually shifting further away from the Great Hall she remembered entering moments before.</p><p>“Oh, someone is impatient. You shouldn’t worry Miss Alster, I can assure you you are very much still on your seat, if looking a bit tense. Impressive amount of control, I would say.”</p><p>The hat could read minds. Maybe she should have expected it. Maggie clawed her fingers into the wooden stool and concentrated on her memory, slowly revealing a ghost-image of what she hoped was reality, even if the other, smaller room looked a lot more real now.</p><p>“A, someone’s quick on the uptake. I see a lot of cunning as well, and the want to prove yourself. Though I guess the curiosity is there as well.”</p><p>I don’t care, just get it over with. Why was this taking so long? It had only taken a second or so for the boy in front of her.</p><p>“I also see that you value your secrets and friends…”</p><p>The buzzing she felt from where the hat touched her started to become nauseating, but Maggie held on, determined not to fall into whatever vision it might bring. Her fingers itched. Five more seconds, and she would rip that thing off, regardless of whether he sorted her or not.</p><p>“It seems our time’s running out, Miss Alster. Well, if you really insist, I’d better send you to -”</p><p>-</p><p>“SLYTHERIN!” the hat called out, and Maggie ripped it off and held it at arm length, waiting a few moments until the room came into focus again. Then, she stood up quickly and put the hat onto the stool again. She felt a bit dizzy, and started walking into the wrong direction at first, away from the cheers, before she noticed her mistake.</p><p>Trying to act nonchalant, she made a curve and walked towards the table on the far left, which had green banners hanging above it, keeping herself together long enough to sink onto a bench and slump onto the table.</p><p>They were celebrating around her. Dully, she thought she heard someone ask if she was okay. She looked up at a dark skinned boy across from her.</p><p>“’s alright. I’m just a bit...” she trailed off and made a vague gesture, too exhausted to try and figure out the right words to describe her condition. The commotion died down again, as everyone looked to the next victim of the hat.</p><p>Maggie slumped down again, deciding she deserved a break.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Because the books are very focused on Britain, Voldemorts war can often seem like this global thing. But there is actually nothing in the books to suggest that, and most people on the outside would probably classify it as a civil war instead.</p><p>The Hat Scene was a late addition, that happened when I realized how old that thing actually is.</p><p>Next, we go to Slytherin. I had a lot of fun doing my own world building where canon ends, and I also didn't want it to be 'Gryffindor, but in Green and Silver'.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Grindylow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maggie makes a few friends and enemies in her new house, and meets the new DADA Professor.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter is slightly longer, because I had forgotten that Dumbledore announces the Tournament at the feast, so I had to slightly rework two scenes. </p><p>I’m wondering if I should maybe post on Thursday or Saturday next week, just to see if that works better.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the sorting, Dumbledore made a few more announcement that Maggie mostly forgot about as soon as she heard them, and then the feast began.</p><p>She wasn’t all that hungry after her encounter with the stupidly old and ridiculously magical hat, but forced herself to eat something anyway, reminding herself that she should be hungry after a whole day without a proper meal. So she lifted herself up from her still empty plate, and looked around for something that wouldn’t upset her stomach.</p><p>“So, feeling better now?” one of the Slytherins asked. It was the boy that had asked before she slumped down.</p><p>Maggie shrugged. She hadn’t passed out in front of everyone. Now she was paying for that with headaches. She took a few breaths.</p><p>“I’m awake. Can’t ask for more.”</p><p>She muttered a curse. In German.</p><p>“What was that?” A girl asked. She had dark hair and a very narrow nose.</p><p>“German.” She left it at that.</p><p>“Oh, you’re German? Does that mean that your one of the exchange students? From Durmstrang?”</p><p>“Of course she isn’t. They don’t get sorted, do they.”</p><p>Maggie looked around the table, her eyes barely open.</p><p>“Well, she doesn’t look like a first year.”</p><p>“Third year. Transfer,” she said, more focused on discerning what would be the least offensive to her tastes. Maybe that soup would be okay? She filled a bowl.</p><p>“Oh, than your already in the right place!” a boy with short, dirty blonde hair said.</p><p>“Mmm. Just my luck.”</p><p>Maggie took a first taste. Not bad.</p><p>“I guess you’ve all heard my name already?”</p><p>“Yeah. Can’t believe we’ve got a Durmstrang here already,” a blonde girl said. Glancing towards her, there was a second girl that looked almost exactly the same. Twins, maybe?</p><p>“I’m not from Durmstrang,” she said. “And I haven’t heard about any exchange, either.”</p><p>“That’s because it’s supposed to be a secret, and Malfoy telling everyone about it doesn’t change that.” an older student said. “Duncan Grey, by the way, Prefect. I’m introducing the first years to our house after the feast. So just stick to me, okay?” </p><p>Maggie nodded, then went back to her soup.</p><p>“So why are you wearing those gloves.” The other twin asked.</p><p>“Yeah, you some kinda germophobe?”</p><p>Maggie looked up irritated. That word didn’t sound nice, but it wasn’t one that Tonks had taught her. No one else looked offended. Maggie wasn’t sure if that meant this was a normal word, or  just that insults were normal in Slytherin.</p><p>“A what?” she asked.</p><p>“I mean, she did barely touch the hat. You think the Sorting Hat’s dirty or what?”</p><p>“What is a Germ-a-phobe?” she asked into the round.</p><p>“Someone who’s afraid of dirt, I think?” the dark haired girl said. “Afraid of germs, like those things that make you sick,” someone else added.</p><p>Oh. Not an insult, then. Or at least nothing to do with her nationality.</p><p>“Well yeah, obviously. So? Are you one?” </p><p>Maggie hesitated. It wasn’t dirt or germs that she was afraid of. Also she didn’t want to give that girl any satisfaction by calling herself by that term. </p><p>But it would make it much easier to explain why she was wearing the gloves all the time.</p><p>“Just leave it be, Hestia. She’s a Slytherin, that’s all that counts.” the dark haired girl came to her rescue. Hestia looked like she wanted to object to that, but after a stare-down she apparently decided it wasn’t worth the effort.</p><p>“Just curious, is all,” she mumbled and turned away.</p><p>Maggie gave a thankful look towards the girl (that she would later learn was Serina) and continued her dinner.</p><p>There were only a few more questions after that, but the group seemed to realize that Maggie wasn’t in much of a mood to talk right now, and mostly talked among themselves. The twins seemed to ignore her in general, though Maggie had a feeling that Hestia was listening to every word, the few times she actually talked. What a weirdo.</p><p>At least, until Dumbledore started making more announcements that plunged the hall into excited and outraged discussions, only temporarily tempered by the dramatic arrival of Professor Moody.<br/>
Maggy tried her best to keep up and get the gist of it.</p><p>There would be no Quidditch Cup this year, which led to outrage across the tables. Maggie didn’t care all that much, personally.</p><p>Alaster Moody was apparently very controversial among her house, though she didn’t have the energy to try and tease out the details right now, only that the twins weren’t exactly fans.</p><p>And then there was the Triwizard Tournament, but she’d already known about that and couldn’t quite find the energy to take part in the excitement right now, as she heard some students complain about the age restriction.</p><p>“Let’s get off of it Q, even if we were allowed in, do you really think anyone from below fifth has any chance to compete?” a girl said to a boy with dark hair and angular eyebrows.</p><p>“Still, couldn’t they have at least let Quidditch be? I’ve been training all summer for the try-outs.”<br/>
“And there’s now way that Flint would have let you into his team, you know that.”</p><p>Maggie tuned out the conversation again, taking a look at the teachers table, and thinking more about the other schools that would visit. She had of course heard a lot about them already. </p><p>Beauxbaton was supposed to impressive and beautiful, hidden somewhere in southern France. One of her former teachers had actually studied there, before moving to Germany and wasn’t shy in sharing anecdotes.</p><p>Durmstrang on the other hand was a mystery. Everyone had heard the name, of course, and Maggie knew that many of the more traditional wizarding families sent their children there, but beyond a vague location in the far north and it’s reputation, she didn’t actually know anything about the school.</p><p>-</p><p>Eventually, the feast ended, and Maggie followed Duncan to the first year Slytherins at the end of the hall, where he proceeded to lead the way to their dormitories.</p><p>The way to the Slytherin Common Room led down some long stairs behind an unassuming wall in the entrance hall. Then they walked through corridors of roughly hewn stone, before coming to a stop in front of what looked like a blank wall. </p><p>“Doesn’t look like much, right? That’s on purpose. Very few people outside of Slytherin know the way to the entrance, which now includes you.”</p><p>Duncan pointed out the stone snakes that were sculpted into two decorative columns flanking the wall.</p><p>“It’s better to just remember the right way, but if you get lost and aren’t sure you’re in front of the right wall, look for those snakes.”</p><p>He told the students to make some space. Maggie hung back, not wanting to draw too much attention to herself.</p><p>“Now, to reveal the entrance, you have to remember the right pass phrase. Don’t write it down and don’t tell it to anyone that isn’t a Slytherin, that is important. Just last year, we had Sirius Black break into Gryffindor Tower, because one of their students wrote down a list of passwords. Just remember it, and if you can’t, find another Slytherin that can.”</p><p>He stood a good meter away from the wall, and said: “Wiggentree”</p><p>There was a slight hiss, and a part of the wall slid back to reveal the way into Slytherin House.<br/>
Duncan told the students to go in, waiting until everyone was inside before stepping in himself. Over the heads of the first years, Maggie got her first look at the Slytherin Common Room.</p><p>It was more of a long hall than a ‘room’, curving strongly to one side with rough stone walls and heavy, richly decorated pillars holding up the ceiling, where bright green flames hovered over black sconces.</p><p>At the inside of the curve, there was a giant stone fireplace, with a sculpted mantle piece, while on the outside were a number of big windows that showed blackness, with the slightest hints of light from above. Beyond the crackling of the fire, she could also hear a slight swishing of water, and some far away voices coming from the outside.</p><p>Grays and Greens and dark colors dominated most of the room, but a lot of the walls were covered in big murals depicting witches and wizards doing all kinds of deeds, many looking positively medieval. The furniture had an air of luxury, black and dark green leather sofas, elliptical tables with clawed feet, dark wood cupboards and the like.</p><p>She heard a slight hiss, as the door closed behind them again</p><p>“Okay, listen up again.” Duncan reasserted himself. “The pass phrase changes every fortnight, you can look it up at the announcement board there,” he pointed towards a wall that was sparsely covered in papers, “which is also were you can find out about extra curriculars and other school events, so make sure to check it regularly. The Common Room is open to all Slytherins and a good place to study, but of course you can also explore the rest of the castle during the day. Those doors,” he gestured towards four doors positioned in between the columns, “lead to a few more rooms that you will be free to explore tomorrow after your lessons. Now, follow me.”</p><p>He led them through the common room, until they reached another door, which led to a big octagonal room, each wall showing one door. The doors all had symbols carved into them, Maggie spotted a dotted circle, a sickle moon, two that looked like symbols for male and female, and others that looked vaguely like numbers or letters, but not any she knew.</p><p>“This is the entrance to the dormitories, each year has it’s own wing here. You will be living in the mars wing,” he opened a door with the symbol that Maggie associated with male, “there’s three students to one room, and you will keep those rooms until you graduate, understood. You can find out which room from this list.”</p><p>He pulled out a parchment and pinned it to the door. “I guess this concludes the tour for now. You’ll get your schedules tomorrow at breakfast, so be sure not to come to late.”</p><p>The first years started to huddle around the parchment, chattering excitedly and slowly disappearing into their wing. Maggie stayed back, unsure if she would be on this list.</p><p>“Maggie, right?” Duncan addressed her, no longer projecting his voice. She nodded.<br/>
He fished out a small slip of paper.</p><p>“You’re joining the third years, so your gonna room in the sun wing.” He glanced at the note. “Not sure who your roommates are.” He gave her the parchment and pointed to another door, this one engraved simply with a dotted circle. He lowered his voice a bit more. “If you want to go to bed now that’s fine, but the older students always plan a bit of a private party in the common room, if that’s something your interested in.”</p><p>“I’ll think about it,” Maggie answered after a moment, “thank you.” She opened the door to the sun wing and slipped into the corridor, looking along the doors for the right room, comparing to her paper.</p><p>She would take a small break, then see about that party the prefect had mentioned.</p><p>-<br/>
She entered her room alone, noting the roughly pentagonal shape, with three beds at the opposing walls. Just as Megan had promised, her luggage had been taken care of, standing beside the right bed. Looking at the other beds, she quickly appraised the luggage of her future roommates, who apparently hadn’t come here, or at least hadn’t unpacked yet.</p><p>The left bed had a chunky looking trunk and a two smaller suitcases that looked distinctly muggle, one of the suitcases a cheery yellow, looking a bit out of place compared to the rest of the room. Aside the middle bed, there was one slim trunk with silvery borders and a dark burgundy color, as well as a smaller bag out of  dark gray leather, the opening bordered by a string of runes. This one looked a lot more like what she would expect from a Slytherin.</p><p>Over the beds, there were posters and drawings stuck to the stone walls, by some kind of sticking charm Maggie assumed, showing two very different priorities. The left wall was mostly filled with posters about magical creatures, fire-breathing dragons, sparkling fairies, as well as very involved drawings of said creatures. The middle was taken in by posters of what Maggie assumed were music groups, though not any that she knew of, as well as a couple of moving photos depicting a number of different people, including one particularly big one of a very smarmy looking wizard, that had a large autograph scrawled onto it.</p><p>The wall over her bed had also been put to some use, though it looked my like a private announcement board, with a dates for test and events from the previous year, as well as occasional clippings from newspapers.</p><p>Maggie plopped herself onto her new bed. Great. Her roommates had clearly already gotten used to being a duo. There was no way they would be happy about her waltzing in and taking the third spot.</p><p>-</p><p>In the common room, the students of Slytherin were slowly arriving in small groups, discussing the events of the welcoming feast, the sorting, the arrival of Alastor Moody, Dumbledores announcements and of course the Triwizard Tournament.</p><p>“He really kept coming back to this unity, as if that would ever happen,” Moira said, walking among some other third years. “I don’t think I remember a year when those Gryffindors didn’t try to start some shit, pretty sure this rivalry goes back centuries.”</p><p>“Maybe this is about the Tournament, you know, the big event everyone’s talking about?” Becky offered. “And Dumbledore just wants our school to look its best in front of the other schools?”<br/>
“Sure, that’s probably it. You’ve seen Malfoy whining about not being able to compete?” Drew said, “Especially after he bragged about knowing exactly what was going on?”</p><p>Moira spotted Neil and Serina a bit further into the common room, and nudged her friends into the right direction.</p><p>“Oh, I don’t think he stopped yet,” Becky responded and silently pointed towards the white blonde Slytherin, who was still complaining. “How long do you think it’ll take until he gets to his catch phrase?” she whispered to Drew.</p><p>“You know what, I don’t even care. I’m just happy he doesn’t get use Seeker Privilege this year. I think I’ll take a page out your book, and just ignore whatever comes out of his mouth.”</p><p>There weren’t many people that Drew openly hated. But Malfoy had catapulted himself onto the list by running of his mouth about the whole chamber of secret thing, and calling Drew a stain on the houses honor, because his parents couldn’t do magic.</p><p>Sadly,  there were still a lot of idiots that listened to the Malfoy heir.</p><p>“Hey, Becky, missed you at the feast,” Serina said, before quickly hugging the witch.</p><p>“Sorry, I prefer my dinner without any poison,” she said, slyly looking towards the Carrow twins that were currently trying to insert themselves into Malfoy’s group, just bit further away.</p><p>“Well, you missed out. Remember our first newbie?”</p><p>“The one that looked like she was about to keel over?”</p><p>“Yeah, she sat down with us. She’s actually a transfer from Germany -” “But not Durmstrang -” Neil added. “Not Durmstrang,” Serina continued, “some school in the Black Forest, I think. Anyway, she said she’s a third year, so we’ve got nine girls now.”</p><p>Becky thought about it for a moment. “So what does that… Oh! You mean she’s gonna complete our trio?” She looked at Moira, eyes wide. “A new roomie!” </p><p>Moira didn’t look nearly as enthusiastic. Without a word, she took Serina and Neil by their arms and dragged them to a more silent part of the room. Becky followed along, to see her roommate stare them down despite both of them being a head taller than her.</p><p>“Okay, you two, you’re gonna tell us everything you know about that girl.”</p><p>-</p><p>It was close to midnight when Maggie was woken by someone talking. It took her a few minutes to wake up enough to actually try and understand what was being said, translating in her head.</p><p>“…hasn’t done anything yet…” They were whispering. About someone. Maggie decided to sit up and take a proper look.</p><p>“… do you really think – Oh. She’s awake!” one of the two girls said. Maggie blinked her eyes for a bit. “Yes. Awake.” She looked up and got a better look at the intruders.</p><p>“Hello, you’re Maggie, right?” the dark haired girl stepped forwards, reaching out her hand, “I’m Becky, Becky Knowles and this is Moira. Your new roommates!” She shook her hand.<br/>
Not intruders. Roommates. The light haired girl, Moira, looked a lot less enthused about the situation, but gave her a nod.</p><p>“Um, yeah. Thanks? I guess.” Maggie answered lamely. What was one supposed to say in her situation. “I mean, if you I know that you probably didn’t want me to just come in here like this, so if you need me to move to another room…”</p><p>“What, why wouldn’t we want you here?” Becky looked almost hurt.</p><p>Moira rolled her eyes. “Snape’s not gonna change your room without a good reason.”</p><p>“Yes, and this is a good thing. We’ve got a full trio now, so you can’t just bail out now.”<br/>
Maggie looked to Moira, who seemed better at explaining. “Full trio?”</p><p>Moira sighed. “The trio of witches has some long tradition, and to facilitate that better, Slytherin dorms have three beds each. Of course, we happened to only have eight witches this year, so Becky and me got a room for ourselves.”</p><p>“But now we’re three. This is gonna awesome.”</p><p>“Huh. Well, I guess that is good thing. Can I just go to sleep now? I just had a pretty long day…” </p><p>“Don’t you want to change first? And maybe unpack?”</p><p>Maggie looked down at herself. She was still wearing her cloak and uniform.<br/>
She nodded sheepishly. “Sounds like a good idea.”</p><p>-</p><p>After unpacking and getting ready for bed, sleep came quickly. On the next morning, Maggie awoke feeling well rested, better than she had in a long time if she was honest. She stood up early and got herself ready in the bathrooms, knowing they would be filled with students soon enough.</p><p>When she got back, Moira sat and looked at her sleepily.</p><p>“Is it already time?”</p><p>“Nah, just avoiding the morning rush,” Maggie answered quietly, and checked her clock. “Ten before seven.”</p><p>Moira lay back for a few seconds, before changing her mind and rolling off the bed.</p><p>“You’re probably right about the morning rush,” she said sleepily and sat up, grabbing a towel and some clothes from her trunk, before slinking out of the door.</p><p>Maggie decided to use the time to pack her bag for the day.</p><p>Some parchment, her quills and an inkwell, (why they didn’t use paper here, she had yet to find out) also her notebook for her own organization needs, her wand, of course, then books - </p><p>Right, she hadn’t gotten her schedule yet. She looked over the schoolbooks in her trunk, Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky, ‘The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three’, ‘Intermediate Transfiguration’, ‘History of Magic III: Renaissance and Beyond’… </p><p>Maybe the spellbook would be useful? Maggie hesitated, then dropped the books back into the trunk. She would have to come back after breakfast anyway, right? They couldn’t really expect them to foresee what books they would need without a schedule?</p><p>After some consideration, Maggie put the Divination Textbook into her bag.</p><p>Just in case.</p><p>A few minutes later, some metal contraption standing on Becky’s bed started making noise, waking the sleeping witch, who sat up and gave the novelty alarm clock a pet that made it quiet down again.</p><p>“Oh. You’re already awake?” she asked, and picked up the dragon shaped clock to take a closer look at the clock face.</p><p>Just in that moment, Moira reappeared in the room, still drying of her damp hair. “Morning Becky.” She sat down on her bed and dried off her hair by running her wand along, before she started braiding her hair. “If you want to avoid the twins in the bathroom, you better get yourself out there now.”</p><p>Suddenly looking wide awake, Becky ran out of the room – then dashed quickly back in to grab a few things – “thanks Moira” – and out again.</p><p>Moira continued on her braid.</p><p>“So what’s going on with the twins?” Maggie asked.</p><p>“The Carrow Twins. Hestia and Flora. Hestia’s the more outspoken one, but that doesn’t mean you should underestimate Flora. They’ve got some family that was really supportive of You-Know-Who in the last war, and really pride themselves on their purebloodedness.<br/>
They’ve been bullying Becky since first year, because she doesn’t like to hide her muggle heritage. Of course, I wasn’t really friends with her at that point, but when the attacks happened and those two still kept going on with their crap, I decided to stick with my roomie,” Moira summarized.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>She hadn’t really thought about that part of Slytherin until now. Andy had mentioned it, but so far none of the Slytherin’s had even asked about her ancestry.</p><p>“I guess they wouldn’t like me all that much than, either,” she mumbled.</p><p>“Don’t worry, most of the Slytherins aren’t all that pureblooded, anyway. Even our head of house is a halfblood, not that he likes to talk about it.”</p><p>She looked into the mirror judging her braid.</p><p>“Actually, that’s a bit of a rule. Don’t ask about someone’s blood-status. It’s really impolite. Not that that stops the bigots.”</p><p>“I didn’t plan to do that.”</p><p>“Good.”</p><p>Just then, Becky returned, a lot quicker than Maggie had expected.</p><p>“Did I miss anything important?”</p><p>“I just explained why we don’t like the Carrows.”</p><p>“Urgh,” Becky made a disgusted face, “don’t even mention that name around me. I still don’t get how Serina can deal with them on a daily basis.”</p><p>She shook her head.</p><p>“Let’s not talk about them, okay? Let’s talk about something else, like - “ she snapped her finger.</p><p>“Schedules?” Maggie offered.</p><p>“Yes! Schedules. Maybe we’ll match, that would make things a lot easier, right? So, what electives did you choose?”</p><p>-<br/>
They only matched partially. Moira and Maggie shared Old Runes and Arithmancy, while Becky shared only Divination with her, having chosen Care for Magical Creatures as her other subject. But as it turned out, that didn’t matter all that much today, as they would start the school year with core subjects, Transfiguration starting at nine, then DADA and Herbology.</p><p>“I still don’t get why you would take Divination and Arithmancy,” Becky said as they walked towards the Transfiguration Class Room.</p><p>“I like Math, okay? And Divination sounded…” useful “…interesting. Who knows, maybe I have ‘the inner eye’ or whatever. Then I would want to know that, right?”</p><p>They entered the classroom, which was decorated with big bird cages that housed a variety of birds and animals. On the front desk, Maggie saw a cat sitting, and cleaning it’s paw. She didn’t think much of it, knowing how many students had brought their cats.</p><p>She slid into an empty seat, not really looking who was already sitting there. Moira and Becky looked at her weirdly.</p><p>“What?” She turned around, to see what they were looking at.</p><p>Hestia was looking at her disdainfully.</p><p>“I think you’ve got the wrong seat,” she said, a challenging undertone.</p><p>Maggie took a breath to formulate an apology, but then saw the slightest hint of a smug smirk on the other girls face.</p><p>“Do I?” She raised her eyebrows. “Looks like the right seat to me.”</p><p>Hestia lost her smugness, and Maggie smiled sweetly.</p><p>“I – well, it is,” Hestia stuttered.</p><p>“But I like this seat,” she said, looking at Hestia innocently. Who suddenly flushed and looked away, before shouting out, “That’s not funny!” while staring at something behind her.</p><p>At this, Maggie heard laughter and turned around to her roommates, who had apparently lost it at Hestia’s reaction. She also spotted Flora, who was just sitting down beside a boy whose name Maggie hadn’t learned yet. She shot Maggie a nasty look, but made no attempts to move over to help her sister. Her friends had apparently gotten themselves under control again, and moved towards a free table further in the back.</p><p>Maggie turned back to Hestia, who looked livid.</p><p>“If it’s such a big deal, I guess I could switch seats,” Maggie said, with barely suppressed mirth.</p><p>Hestia narrowed her eyes at that and pressed her mouth into a thin line. A few seconds passed in tense silence, as they had short staring contest.</p><p>“Okay!” Maggie shrugged, and pulled out her transfiguration book, deciding to ignore the other Slytherin, and turned back to the front of the class. The tabby cat looked at her. Maggie smiled feeling very smug about the small victory, and decided not to think about the consequences for now.<br/>
They waited for the teacher to arrive, but Professor McGonagall was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>Until the strike of nine, when suddenly the cat launched from the desk and, in a fluid motion, transformed into their teacher.</p><p>The woman nodded her head in a small bow, as part of the class started applauding her.<br/>
Maggie felt a cold prickly feeling at the back of her neck, suddenly realizing the teacher had watched all of that.</p><p>“Thank you, thank you,” McGonagall said, hushing the class with a gesture.</p><p>“Now that we’ve brought all the theatrics behind us,“ she gave an amused look to Maggie, who felt herself flush red, “it’s time to start with the academics. Can anyone in this class name the magic I just used?”</p><p>From there on, the lesson continued, with McGonagall teaching the basics about animagi, as well some of the legal limitations on the technique, which she had learned when she was traveling the world in her youth.</p><p>“So, before any of you asks, no, I will not be teaching any of you how to become an animagus. Even if I believed any of you to be ready for the process, which I don’t, doing so would be highly illegal under the current law.”</p><p>After that note, she got into a few more details about the process. Stressing that it wasn’t just transforming into an animal, as “doing so would also make you think you are that animal, and prevent you from turning yourself back.”</p><p>She gave the students some time to ask questions, before finally transitioning to their lesson plan for the year, and ending the lesson by giving some homework.</p><p>Once the lesson ended, Hestia stood up hastily, and shot out of the classroom, where she then waited for her sister to join. Maggie took her time, joining up with Moira and Becky again.</p><p>“Next is Defense, right?”</p><p>“Yeah. I’m really curious what our new teacher’s gonna be like. He’s got quite the reputation, you know.”</p><p>They started walking towards the classroom and Maggie was happy she didn’t have to search for it alone. She was almost certain she would’ve gotten lost somehow.</p><p>“Wait, new teacher? Didn’t you have Defense in your first two years already?”</p><p>“Sure, but our first teacher literally lost his mind at the end of that horrible year, and the one we had last year turned out to be a werewolf. So we’re getting a new teacher. Again.”</p><p>“I heard he’s some kind of ex-auror. Caught a lot of D.E.s and dark wizards, but apparently became too paranoid to keep working.”</p><p>“Yeah, not to mention his dramatic entrance yesterday.” Neil piped up. Him and a few other Slytherins from their year had caught up to them and were now walking with them, as they all had to get to the same place, anyway.</p><p>“Should someone like that even teach children? I mean, if he’s too paranoid to work as an auror, who’s to say he won’t hex one of us because he believes we’re secretly plotting against him?” another witch said. Maggie hadn’t met this girl before. Dark complexion and big, rectangular glasses.</p><p>“Well, he can’t be worse than Lockhart, can he?” Drew joked.</p><p>“He wasn’t that bad,” Becky argued.</p><p>“Becky, please. That guy couldn’t even handle pixies. At least this one will actually know something about the Dark Arts.”</p><p>-</p><p>They arrived at the classroom, Neil and the other boy now in the lead.</p><p>This time, they spotted their professor immediately. Yesterday, Maggie had been a bit too out of it to get a good look at him, so when she saw his face, mottled with all kinds of scars, his nose misshapen and almost destroyed, she froze.</p><p>For a moment, she saw someone else.</p><p>Someone stumbled into her, and Professor Moody turned his head, startling Maggie out of her stupor. No. Her kidnapper hadn’t looked like this. The big, blue eye, affixed to his face with leather straps and set into a big brass ring made the difference even more obvious, now that she could see his full face.</p><p>Maggie overcame her apprehension and hurried into the classroom. This wasn’t him. There was no reason to be afraid. This was an auror who hunted down dark wizards, not a dark wizard himself. Nothing to worry about.</p><p>She made sure to pick her seat more carefully this time and ended up beside Dana, the girl with the big glasses. Maggie surreptitiously adjusted her gloves. She didn’t expect anything to happen here, but it felt better to have a bit of security.</p><p>A few seconds after everyone had sat, down, Professor Moody stood up abruptly, and stared at them, his blue eye flitting about and stopping at every student for a few seconds. </p><p>“Slytherins!” he muttered under his breath, looking very much not happy to be here. He started pacing the room. “I am Alastor Moody, but for the duration of this year, you will call me ‘Professor Moody’. Understood.”</p><p>They all yes-sired.</p><p>“No, I assume you have already heard all kinds of stories about me. Some of you,” he passed by the Carrows, giving them an intimidating look, “may know me because I arrested your relatives, parents, friends of your families…”</p><p>He had reached the back of the class, and Maggie suppressed the shudder at having him in her back. She gripped her wand tightly.</p><p>“Others,” he began, “may just know me from rumors and stories, horrible stories, really.”</p><p>He was on her right now. Suddenly, he lunged towards her, shouting “Constant Vigilance!”</p><p>Maggie didn’t think, just striking out with her wand and pointing it straight at him.<br/>
There was a tense moment, but then he grinned.</p><p>“Good reaction, Miss…”</p><p>Maggie swallowed. “Alster.”</p><p>He nodded and took a step back, as Maggie lowered her wand again. Moody continued as if nothing happened. “I know the stories you’ve heard about me, but I can assure you,” he ended up behind his desk again and looked at the class, “most of them are true.”</p><p>He let that sink in for moment, grabbing a parchment, while his mechanical eye kept whirring about and watching the students.</p><p>“Fortunately for you, I’m not here to hunt dark wizards. I’m here to teach you how to survive in a world that is full of dangers, both human and not. So if you are interested in that, you better listen to what I have teach you.”</p><p>He stood up straight, and started reading the student list, his dark, normal eye stuck to the page, while his mechanical one scanned the classroom, moving independently.</p><p>After they finally ended after Wallace, Dana (the girl next to her), Moody put down the parchment and continued his first lesson.</p><p>“According to your curriculum,” he started writing on the blackboard, “you’re supposed to learn about the more dangerous of magical creatures and cursed humanoids this year. If you look into your books, you will find everything you need to learn to pass your tests.”</p><p>The students looked to their books.</p><p>“But tests and exams tell you very little about how things work in the real world. Anyone can describe what they would do in a given situation, and then completely forget about when they have to face their opponent. No, I prefer more practical teaching methods.”</p><p>He walked to the side of the room, where Maggie now noticed a big, square object, big enough to comfortably hold a grown man, that was covered in black velvet. Moody pulled of the velvet with a flourish, revealing an aquarium, that at first glance seemed to be filled only with some seaweed an old wood.</p><p>“Come on, step closer, get a good look.”</p><p>The class hesitantly shuffled to the front, arranging themselves in a half circle around the aquarium. Even close up, Maggie couldn’t spot anything that looked dangerous in there.</p><p>“It’s just seaweed,” one big-mouthed student suddenly said, which made Moody turn to him.</p><p>“Just seaweed,” he repeated, then moved his wand and summoned a stepladder.</p><p>“Now, does anyone want to put their hand in there?” he asked and grinned.</p><p>The whole class took a sudden step back, shaking heads.</p><p>“Mmh. How about you, Mr. Forrest?” he said to the student that had spoken up.</p><p>The student swallowed, but then stepped forward towards the ladder, tensing, hesitating. He slowly climbed upwards, apparently determined to make a point.</p><p>Maggie started scanning the tank, looking if she had overlooked anything in there.<br/>
The boy lowered his hand to the water, fingers almost touching the surface.</p><p>“Stop!” someone suddenly shouted, and he flinched back. “Grindylow!”</p><p>Looking to the side, Maggie realized that it had been Becky that had cried out.</p><p>“Yes, Miss Knowles?” Professor Moody permitted her.</p><p>“There’s a grindylow hanging in the kelp.” She stepped a bit closer to the tank and pointed at a certain spot, where Maggie now suddenly recognized a nasty looking creature, mottled brown and green, smooth limbs and spindly hands, blending completely into the environment.</p><p>“You can step back, Mr. Forrest,” Moody dismissed the student, then said to Becky, “Ten points to Slytherin, Miss Knowles. Five for spotting the grindylow, and another five for your timely reaction.”</p><p>He put the step ladder to the side again.</p><p>“Take a good look, everyone. Today's lesson will be about grindylows. You’ve seen how hard this one was to spot, and it will a lot harder when you don’t have a glass wall separating you. As some you may know, there is actually a population grindylows in the Black Lake, just outside this castle. So I would advise you all to listen carefully today.”</p><p>He gave them a few minutes to take a good look at the creature while continuing his lecture, before telling them sit down and write down notes.</p><p>From there on, the lesson continued a lot more like a regular lesson, with Moody demonstrating a few spells that were useful in dealing with such creatures, and ending the lesson with some homework. But he also warned them that they would leave this classroom soon enough, for some more hands-on teaching.</p><p>And after this introduction, Maggie pondered if that had been a promise.</p><p>Or a threat.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Bored to Death</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maggie find out if the rumors about Prof. Binns are true.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Time to introduce our first major canon Character, Ginny. I hope I did her justice in this chapter, even if it was just a short cameo.</p><p>To the few readers following this, I might have to switch to a bi-weekly schedule soon. This was the last chapter I had finished before starting to post, RL is getting a bit more busy right now and I don't want this turn into a stress factor instead of something I do for fun. I will try to get out the next chapter by the next weekend, though.</p><p>(I have planned around 24 chapters overall, but writing them will take some time)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Herbology was held with the Ravenclaws and didn’t bring any big surprises for Maggie. Her ‘trio’ (Becky insisted on using that word) kept their distance from the twins, who thankfully hadn’t done anything backhanded yet, and listened to the Professor, who apparently also was the Head of Hufflepuff.</p><p>Professor Sprout introduced their next project, which encompassed growing some medicinal plants from seed to full plant, using magic to speed up the process so they would be mature by winter. To Becky’s delight, they were supposed to group up in three for this.</p><p>After that, they had to split up; Maggie and Moira headed towards their first Arithmancy lecture, while Becky went outside to join in with Care for Magical Creatures, looking very excited about that.</p><p>Finding the classroom proved to be a bit tricky. They knew it was somewhere near the Ravenclaw Tower, but must have taken the wrong turn at some point, now cursing the castle for being so complicated.</p><p>“Maybe we should ask someone?” Maggie suggested.</p><p>They looked around, not seeing anyone, not even any paintings.</p><p>“We’d have to find <em>someone</em> first.”</p><p>“If I do, I will tell you first,” a soft voice said from behind them.</p><p> They turned around, looking at the girl that had seemingly materialized out of thin air.<br/>
“Agh, Lovegood. Don’t do this.”</p><p>Maggie looked at the girl. Wild, light blonde hair, half-lidded eyes and a bottlecap necklace. She was also wearing blue. Maggie was unsure if she had seen her before. A Ravenclaw, maybe?</p><p>“Do you know where – why are you barefoot?” she swerved right out of the question she intended to ask, when she noticed the girls feet.</p><p>“Oh, sometimes my shoes decide to disappear. Another of many mysteries, though I suspects the nargles to behind it.”</p><p>Maggie almost agreed, remembering when her necklace had disappeared – wait no, that didn’t actually happen, she realized. That had been this weird dream. She looked to Moira, intending to ask her opinion on the matter.</p><p>“Lovegood, if someone stole your shoes, you need to talk to Flitwick about that.”</p><p>Lovegood shrugged. “He doesn’t really believe in nargles. And I’m not worried. They’ll turn up again eventually.”<br/>
She turned to Maggie and looked at her strangely. “Your seem to attract a lot of nargles, by the way.”</p><p>Nargles? She definitely didn’t know that word. </p><p>“What are nargles?”</p><p>“They’re nothing!” Moira interjected, “Just some thing Lovegood imagines. They aren’t real.”</p><p>“Oh, they are very real. They’re just invisible to the human eye.”</p><p>“Look, Lovegood, we don’t have time for you stories right now. We’re trying to find the Arithmancy classroom.”</p><p>“Oh, okay.” Lovegood said, and turned around, walking away again.<br/>
She stopped at the end of the corridor, and looked at them again.</p><p>“What?” Moira called.</p><p>“Arithmancy is in this direction!” Lovegood called back.</p><p>Moira and Maggie exchanged a look, before hurrying after the strange girl.</p><p>-</p><p>Their first lesson in arithmancy started without much fanfare or shenanigans. The class was surprisingly small, with a little more than a dozen students, almost half of them Ravenclaws. Luna was among them. Besides her, there was one other Slytherin, Cyrus Thorburn, who came from a wealthy Pureblood family. There were only two Gryffindors and two Hufflepuffs as well.</p><p>Professor Vector started her lesson exactly on time, keeping her introduction short and going through the list quickly. She opened the blackboard, where she had already written down this years syllabus in bullet points, and summarized each one shortly, before telling them to write it down.</p><p>After she was satisfied that everyone was done, she surprised everyone by giving out a <em>test.</em></p><p>“Do not worry. This test is purely for me to evaluate where each of you stand now, and will <em>not</em> affect your grade. You have half an hour, answer to your <em>best ability,</em> please. If you are done, you can hand in your test and leave the classroom.”</p><p>That didn’t really reassure the students, who looked at the test papers with clear affront. Professor Vector told them to begin, and Maggie started reading carefully, not wanting to lose points for misunderstanding questions.</p><p>The practical part seemed simple enough to her, the mathematical familiar enough, but the <em>numerology</em> part really had her scratch her head, and there were two or three questions were she had to guess. She was maybe eighty percent done when the first student left, while she thinking hard on how to formulate her answers in the last, written part. When she was done, with maybe two minutes let on the clock, she was surprised to see that at least half of the class was still working on the test.</p><p>She skimmed her answers one more time, before standing up and handing her test in, with maybe half a minute left, and left the classroom, finding a few Ravenclaws discussing the test outside.</p><p>Luna exited just after her, and then the rest of the class followed. Moira started to complain about the test.</p><p>“I can’t believe she would make us do a test <em>in the first lesson.</em>”</p><p>“Yeah, the written part really slowed me down -”</p><p>“Wait, there was a <em>written part</em>?” A Hufflepuff boy exclaimed, having overheard them.</p><p>“On the last page?”</p><p>Slowly the handful of students moved towards the staircase, still discussing the unexpected test. Some of them hadn’t even made it to the end, which made Maggie wonder if she rushed her answers too much after all.</p><p>“Hey, stop worrying you big nerd, you didn’t even need the full time, did you? I barely managed to start the written part,” Moira told her, “so don’t you complain to me about being too fast.”</p><p>Maggie swallowed her protest. Maybe she did worry too much.</p><p>“Anyways, if it turns out you actually aced that test, I’ll know who too ask for help for homework. From what I’ve heard, Professor Vector gives a lot of those.”</p><p>“Aced?” Maggie asked.</p><p>“Right. Um, like an ace in a game of cards. It means doing something very well and without much trouble.”</p><p>By now, both Moira and Becky had become used to explaining words, which Maggie was really grateful for. They continued downward, intending to enjoy the warm weather for a bit and wait for their third, who was down near the Forbidden Forest for her Care of Magical Creatures class.</p><p>And so, Maggie ended her first day of school at Hogwarts. So far, without any bigger problems</p><p>-</p><p>For the next few days, school passed without any incidents. Maggie got a taste into all her subjects, and got to know a few more students from her year, though she knew it would be some time until she would get all of their names straight. In potions, she met the Gryffindors, who she knew had an old rivalry with her house. She also got a first taste of the favoritism that Professor Snape had towards his own house, when he deducted points from a red haired girl for helping another student. Charms they shared with the Hufflepuffs, and she recognized Diane from the train. She learned that most students viewed History of Magic as a good time to catch up on sleep, as Mr. Binns was a literal ghost and seemed unable to properly remember their names as soon as he had put down the attendance list.<br/>
Maggie got settled with ‘Miss Ester’, which was still a few letters off.</p><p>To her regret, one of the Carrow twins had decided to take Ancient Runes as well. Maggie was pretty sure it was Flora. In silent agreement, they did the mature thing and simply refused to acknowledge each other’s existence for the duration, as Professor Babbling made a grand speech about the long history of magical writing systems.</p><p>They had their first Astronomy lesson on Wednesday Evening, just before curfew on top of the thusly named Astronomy Tower. The only thing new for Maggie here were the astronomical instruments they would be using, and the weird way British witches pronounced the Latin names of the planets.</p><p>Things picked up again on Thursday. Today would be Maggie’s first lesson in Divination, which she would share with Becky, and an assortment of students from other houses. But before that, she had to go through History, DADA and her second Arithmancy lesson. And her problems started at breakfast, as they started discussing their new subject.</p><p>“You know, I’m really excited about our teacher. Professor Trelawney’s supposed to be <em>an actual seer,</em> at least that’s what I’ve heard, with some <em>real predictions</em> and everything,” Becky started chattering.</p><p>Maggie looked at the teachers table at the back of the hall.</p><p>“Which one of them is she?” Maggie asked, looking for a teacher she hadn’t yet interacted with.</p><p>“Oh, none of them. She’s rarely seen outside of her rooms, actually. Something about keeping the right vibrations, I think.”</p><p>“Oh, of course you would fall for that, <em>Know-Nothing</em>,” a voice cut in. Hestia, who had just walked in with her sister.</p><p>“Just ignore her,” Becky hissed under her breath, “she’s not even worth it.”</p><p>“Don’t listen to the that mudblood wannabe, Alster, Trelawney’s one big fraud, who just hides her lack of talent behind <em>smoke and mirrors</em>. You know, the kind that only <em>stupid muggles</em> would believe are magic.” That was Flora, her sweet voice heavy with implication.</p><p>“She’s not a fraud. She made some real predictions, even some prophecies,” Becky insisted.</p><p>“Prophecies? Sure, what about, some witless oaf breaking old china? Some stupid girl’s misfortune? <em>Harry Potter getting into trouble?</em> Please, anyone can predict those things, but that doesn’t make them prophecies. So, where are those prophecies, huh?”</p><p>“Hestia, you know full well that no one is allowed to access the prophecies,” Moira came to her friends defense. “And if you call my friend that word again, I’m gonna make you a prediction you won’t like, and I’ll make sure it’ll come true.”</p><p>Hestia and Flora backed of slightly, but kept their stupid grin on and waltzed of with a giggle.</p><p>“She’s <em>not a fraud</em>,” Becky repeated. “You’ll see. She’s the real thing.”</p><p>Maggie just nodded, agreeing with her friend if just to spite the Carrows. And maybe she wanted Trelawney to be real. Wanted someone who might help her with her visions. That was why she had taken the subject, after all.</p><p>-</p><p>When they entered the history classroom, Maggie’s mood had already reached the bottom, and she didn’t think that an hour of Professor Binns’ droning on about dates and names would help that. She really expected the twins to do something during the hour, knowing that Binns wasn’t the most perceptive on his best days.</p><p>But nothing happened, except for Maggie being unusually tense while most of her classmates dozed away to the ghosts lecture.</p><p>Until the end of class. While leaving class, they were forced to pass Binns, who today had elected to stay in the room, instead of disappearing through the wall just slightly left of where the door was. Over the last few days, Maggie had been very careful to avoid the Hogwarts ghosts – she had a pretty good idea that touching them wouldn’t be a good thing for someone like her, even if it hadn’t happened yet.</p><p>But just as she was about to turn to avoid the translucent Professor, she felt a spell impact with her ankles and stumbled. Maggie tried to stop the fall, but her legs felt like they had been bound together, and she soon impacted – or rather, fell through – the deceased faculty member.</p><p>It felt like being showered with a bucket of ice water, and in a flash, her surroundings were replaced completely by a different room.</p><p>-</p><p>Maggie sat up and quickly took in the smaller room. Multiple bookshelves on the walls, filled up with thick tomes, newspaper and books of all shapes and sizes. A few paintings and prints around the walls, as well as some framed documents and photographs. There was a single window, and outside Maggie could see a well kept lawn disappear into the nothingness, assuring her that this was one of her visions.</p><p>Maggie closed her eyes, trying to picture the classroom her body was most likely still lying in, trying to <em>force herself back to reality</em>.</p><p>But after a few moments of trying, she had to admit defeat. She was stuck here, until the vision played out and allowed her to return.</p><p>She opened her eyes. There was a big desk on her right she hadn’t noticed yet. It was filled with piles of books and papers, yet didn’t look chaotic, all of those piles kept neat and aligned with the edges. </p><p>Behind the desk, there was a wizard, leaned back on his chair and snoring slightly, a pair of glasses hanging from his nose. Maggie rounded the desk to take a closer look and confirm her suspicion.</p><p>Yep, that was Professor Binns, if with slightly more color in his face.</p><p>Maggie sighed. It seemed she would find out if the rumors about his death were true.</p><p>-</p><p>Ginny had just about noticed one of the Carrows drawing a wand and whisper a spell, but not early enough to intervene. She saw the girl stumble, a few shouts and saw the C-twins snigger in the short time between the girl falling into the Professor and her friends realizing that she <em>wasn’t standing up again</em>.</p><p>“Maggie? MAGGIE?”</p><p>Ginny made her way forward, wanting to see clearer what had happened. She saw Professor Binns finally react to the situation by taking a step back. “Oh dear, what – I – did anyone see what happened?”</p><p>Out of the side of her eye, she saw the Blackwood girl draw her wand and waltz up to the twins, who both drew their wands in response and didn’t look smug anymore – “EXPELLIARMUS” – the twins were thrown back. “I know you cast something. WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!” the girl demanded, as everyone instincutally backed away and the Carrows scooted back, avoiding the enraged witch.</p><p>“It was just a Leg-lock-jinx, I swear, just a harmless prank, please.” One of the Carrows quickly spit out, looking genuinely scared.</p><p>“When I find out what you did to her…” “Miss Blackwell, please,” Professor Binns said in his most authorative voice (which wasn’t all that impressive), “There will be no vigilante justice in my classroom.”</p><p>Blackwood kept her wand pointed at the Carrows a moment longer. A tense moment later, she took a step back, but kept her wand and eyes on the twins.</p><p>“Maybe someone should take her to Madame Pompfrey!” Ginny prompted, noticing another Slytherin’s attempts to wake up the unconscious girl.</p><p>“Right, that sounds like a good idea.” Professor Binns grabbed a quill to write a note – or rather, he attempted to do so, before remembering his current limitations, when his hand passed through the quill. “Well, I guess you will just tell Madame Pomfrey that I send you,” he said dejectedly.</p><p>“I’ll take her, I’m her roommate.” the Slytherin trying to wake her said.</p><p>“I’ll come with. I saw how everything happened,” Ginny said then and briefly locked eyes with the Slytherin girl.</p><p>“Yes, good call Miss Westerly. You can tell Madame Pomfrey how, well, whatever happened, happened.” </p><p>That was all the permission Ginnny needed, who then stepped forward and cast a hovering charm on the unconscious girl, as the Slytherin did the same.<br/>
Together, they hurried towards the Hospital Wing.</p><p>“You’re Ginny Weasley, right? The younger sister of the Weasley Twins?” the girl started when the silence became too much.</p><p>“Yes. You’re -” Ginny thought for a moment, “Um, was it Betty?”</p><p>"Becky," she was corrected.</p><p>“Becky Knowles, yes.”</p><p>There was another moment of silence.</p><p>“So you’re roommates with the new girl.”</p><p>“Yes, she took the third bed in our room. Honestly, I was a bit nervous at first, knowing that someone we’d never met would be the third in our trio - “</p><p>“Trio?” Ginny interrupted.</p><p>“Because all the rooms have three beds?” Becky said, as if that was self evident.</p><p>“They don’t have three beds in Gryffindor.”</p><p>“Huh.”</p><p>They walked pass a group of students, that eyed them curiously. One of them peeled off, and Ginny didn't take long to spot the shiny badge.</p><p>“What are you two doing with her?”</p><p>“We're bringing her to the Hospital Wing!” Ginny said back, not slowing down and forcing the Prefect to keep up with them. “She’s unconscious, we not sure why and she didn’t wake up.”</p><p>“Well, do you have a teacher’s note?”</p><p>“It happened in History of Magic,” Becky said.</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“Mr. Binns can’t hold a quill. You can go <em>ask him</em>, if you really need to.”</p><p>Understanding dawned on his face.</p><p>“Oh, right. Well, I guess I won’t keep you any longer.” he said, still walking with them, before he realized what he was doing and turned around to walk into the opposite direction.<br/>
Ginny rolled her eyes.</p><p>There were few more moments of silence, as they had to climb a staircase. The Hospital Wing shouldn’t be far now, Ginny thought.</p><p>“So, she’s the third in your ‘trio’,” Ginny tried to get the conversation back up again.</p><p>“Yes. Me, Moira, and now Maggie. Honestly, I guess I got really lucky that she wasn’t another of those holier than you <em>purebloods</em> -  no offense to you, of course – or worse, another Hestia, but we get along pretty well now.”</p><p>“Mm-mh.”</p><p>“Which of course means that Hestia and Flora can’t stand her.” Becky’s mood quickly took a dive as she said that.</p><p>“Let’s be real, not being well liked by those two is a <em>badge of honor</em> in my book,” Ginny said quickly.<br/>
She knew that corridor. Just around the corner, and they would be there.</p><p>“You don’t have to tell me. You’re really lucky you only have to see them in class.”</p><p>“So, why did new girl transfer, any way?” Ginny asked, half out of curiosity and half to go to a less depressing topic.</p><p>“Honestly, I’m not entirely sure. She’s from Germany, went to some school in the south there. I think she moved to some relatives in England recently? I didn’t want to ask, I mean, if it was for some non-depressing reason she would have probably told us already, you know?”</p><p>Ginny nodded.<br/>
They rounded the corner, the Hospital Wing finally in front of them.</p><p>“Thank you for the help, by the way,” Becky said in that moment, “wouldn’t have expected that from a Gryffindor.”</p><p>“Don’t mention it.” As if she, Ginny Weasley, could just stand by and do nothing in such a situation. Not after her disastrous first year.</p><p>She wondered if she should say anything more, but then Becky spotted Madame Pomfrey and called out to her, forcing Ginny to focus on the present situation again.</p><p>-</p><p>Bored out of her mind, Maggie had searched the desk, looking if she could find anything useful in there, like maybe some old tests. She told herself that it was nothing but curiosity, to see if it was true that Professor Binns had been using the same exams for the last twenty years (Neil had been adamant about this, saying he trusted his source on this).</p><p>She opened a drawer, and felt victorious for a moment, as she saw what looked like test papers.</p><p>She fished one out, not really caring for the Professor beside her (this had all already happened, so he wouldn’t see her anyway, right?). But then she took a closer look and found only disappointment. The letters weren’t legible, only blurring and shifting between different shapes and configurations.</p><p>Right. She should have expected that. The details were never quite clear, spoken language usually warbled too much for words to be understandable, why should <em>written language</em> be any different? She slapped the paper onto the desk, slightly disrupting the carefully kept order.</p><p>She looked at Professor Binns skeptically, for a moment unsure if he was still alive. Stepping closer, she held her hand in front of his mouth. Still breathing. Still alive.<br/>
Maggie walked back around the desk and sat down in a chair. This was definitely her longest vision yet. She slumped back. How much longer would this take?</p><p>With her mind drifting, Maggie remembered the witch at the stake, who had talked to her. Who had <em>reacted</em> to her, and spoken in clear words.</p><p>Maggie grabbed the offending paper and stared at the shifting letters. Maybe she was wrong about the language thing. Maybe there was a way to recover language if she put herself to it.<br/>
She locked onto the first word, which slowly settled on four letters, still shifting. There were a lot of four letter words. But how many would you put at the beginning of a test?<br/>
Maggie looked at the clock. Well, if she was stuck here, anyway...</p><p>-</p><p>The vision ended unexpectedly, without preamble or warning. Professor Binns took a last breath, Maggie blinked and suddenly found herself lying down and staring at a stone ceiling. </p><p>Then she noticed that she wasn’t lying on the dusty floor of a classroom, but in soft bed with fresh white bedding. Around her there was a curtain. Someone must have brought her here, where ever <em>here</em> was.</p><p>Maggie prepared herself for the headache that would inevitably follow any such vision, before sitting up – Yep, there it was again, even if it was comparably tame if she thought about the last few times this had happened. She could deal with this.</p><p>She slowly moved her legs to the side and searched for the end of the curtain, ruffling through the folds for a bit.<br/>
Then suddenly, the curtain moved to the side on it’s own, and Maggie came face to face with a witch in an outfit that reminded her somewhat of a nun for some reason.<br/>
“Good, you’re awake.” The witch drew her wand and started casting a few charms.</p><p>Maggie looked around, seeing a long room with a number of beds, all looking like the one she was in.<br/>
“Um, where – am I?”</p><p>The witch stopped for a moment in her actions.<br/>
“This is the Hospital Wing, Miss Alster. What is the last thing you remember?”</p><p>“I was in the History classroom. Someone threw a spell and I stumbled into Professor Binns -” Maggie stopped. Her mother had always told her not to tell strangers about her <em>gift</em>.<br/>
“Good, no memory loss then,” the witch mumbled then looked at Maggie directly. “I’m Madame Pomfrey, the School Healer. Your friends brought you here after you fell and didn’t wake up again. Someone supposedly threw a leg-binding-jinx, and that is concurrent with the diagnostics I did. Of course, such a jinx wouldn’t have left you unconscious, and it definitely wouldn’t have kept you unconscious for half an hour.”</p><p>Maggie looked to the side. There wasn’t anyone else here, only her and the healer.</p><p>“According to my diagnostics, you also didn’t hit your head, which was my first suspicion. Then I tested you necklace,” Maggie’s hand flew to her neck, “but that wasn’t it either. As far as my spells tell me, you should be in perfect health, which leaves us with a mystery.”</p><p>Maggie nodded, trying to ignore the slight headache.</p><p>“Do you have any pain or discomfort now?” the healer asked, clearly noticing something.</p><p>“A slight headache?” Maggie answered honestly.</p><p>The healer nodded.<br/>
“That is something easily treated. Well. It seems that you have recovered from your sudden condition, and I could release you from my care now.”</p><p>“But you won’t do that?”</p><p>“I wouldn’t be a very good healer if I did, especially when we don't know what caused this. I would prefer to keep you for observation for at least the rest of the day, just in case something should happen again. I will also need to inform the headmaster of the occurrence, of course.”</p><p>Maggie wrought her hands, suddenly very aware of the exposed skin.<br/>
“Can I have my necklace back? And my gloves?”</p><p>Madame Pomfrey  gave her a skeptical look, then nodded and walked into a backroom before returning with the items.<br/>
“Those gloves aren’t part of the school uniform. Is there a reason you wear them?”</p><p>Of course she had to ask. Maggie mulled over her answer in her head.<br/>
“You’re a healer. Is there – Do you have to keep your patients secrets, is that a thing, or?”</p><p>“I can be discreet. As long as it isn’t something that threatens the safety of the school, of course. Is there something I should know, Miss Alster?” The Healer fixated her with a look.</p><p>Maggie took a breath and thought about it. She wasn't supposed to tell people. But with no one else around to help her - she took another look around, making sure no one was listening in, before she started talking.</p><p>“The gloves help keep the visions away.” </p><p>“Visions?”</p><p>“It happens sometimes when I touch old magical artifacts or things that were – that some powerful magic touched or something. I get those visions, of the past, like I’m suddenly in there. Sometimes I can keep myself enough in reality to not just – to stay awake, but sometimes I don’t and then I’m completely in there.”</p><p>Madame Pomfrey stared at her for a moment, maybe deciding if she was lying or telling the truth.<br/>
“Is that what happened today?” she asked gently.</p><p>Maggie nodded. “I fell into Professor Binns. He’s a ghost, he’s basically all magic now. So it took me – it took me to his death.”<br/>
A beat of silence.<br/>
“And the gloves help, because they prevent you from accidental touch, I presume?” Madame Pomfrey continued the thought.</p><p>Maggie nodded.</p><p>“Well, that is an unusual situation. Is your headache still there?”</p><p>Maggie shrugged. “A little bit. I always get them afterwards, but they eventually go away again.”</p><p>Pomfrey nodded and stepped towards a cabinet, her fingers going along a number of small bottles, before settling on one.<br/>
“Here, this should help with the headaches. Three drops for now, directly onto your tongue.”</p><p>She gave the bottle to Maggie, who followed the instructions. And like magic, her head suddenly felt clear again. (It probably was magic, now that she thought about it.)</p><p>“What you describe sounds like a rare gift, Miss Alster. Does the headmaster know?”</p><p>Maggie shook her head. “I haven't told him about that. I’m not supposed to tell people.”</p><p>Madame Pomfrey made a disapproving face.<br/>
“For your safety, I think he should know. I can only guess why you wouldn’t want this to be public, but at least some of the faculty needs to be informed.”</p><p>“All of them?” Maggie asked with a hint of panic.</p><p>“Maybe not all of them. Me, obviously, as I already know and am responsible for your health as a student. The Headmaster, of course. I would suggest your Head of House as well. Some of your friends, if you feel comfortable, just so someone is around you that knows what to do.”</p><p>Friends. Maggie thought of Monika at that, who had helped her with this at her old school. But Monika wasn’t at Hogwarts, wasn’t even born yet.<br/>
“I guess I can talk to Professor Dumbledore,” she agreed finally.</p><p>-</p><p>Explaining the whole deal to Dumbledore took a lot longer, as the old man kept asking for clarifications and details, as well as a lot of questions that Maggie herself had never really thought about before.</p><p>“So all those visions have been of the past, is what I gather?”</p><p>“Yes? I mean, it always seemed that way?”</p><p>“And you need to make contact with some kind of magical artifact?”</p><p>“Well, I usually try to avoid this if I can. And it doesn’t have to be an artifact, sometimes it’s – sometimes I’m not entirely sure, and only remember touching a weird stone or something, not really an artifact, and of course Professor Binns isn’t an artifact.”</p><p>Dumbledore nodded.<br/>
“You entered onto platform 9 ¾, correct? Did anything happen when you passed through?”</p><p>“No?” Maggie answered, confused. “I mean, it kinda tingled, but that’s normal, right?”</p><p>Dumbledore’s eyes bored into hers. Avoiding his piercing gaze, Maggie looked to the side and suddenly noticed the Sorting Hat. It was sitting on a shelf, looking pretty lifeless and innocent now.</p><p>“Professor McGonagall told me you were very nervous before the sorting? I assume you were afraid of falling into a vision.”</p><p>Maggie nodded, eyes glued to the desk. “I almost did, I think.”</p><p>“And in your visions, do you have control? Can you actually change things, or are you just a silent observer?”</p><p>Maggie took some seconds to think about this. “It’s – I mean…” she stopped again, then started anew: “The passing out thing doesn’t happen all that often. But when it does, I can move around, I can interact with the environment and even pick up things, but people inside the vision don’t react to me, and language is usually not – I can’t understand what anyone is saying, only that they are talking ...“</p><p>Except for the witch at the stake, she remembered, again looking towards the headmaster. She had talked. Even <em>adressed Maggie personally</em>. She shut up and didn't voice that thought.</p><p>Dumbledore nodded and stood up, before gesturing for her to follow him as he led her to an old cabinet. He opened it, and Maggie saw it contained a big stone bowl filled with a misty, almost oily looking substance, as well as many rows of small glass tubes which contained the same misty substance.</p><p>“What you told me sounds a lot like using a pensieve,” he explained and gestured to the stone bowl,”a magical artifact used to store and review memories in greater detail. You say that none of your visions are of the future, right?”</p><p>Maggy nodded. She was <em>pretty sure about that</em>.</p><p>“Then I believe calling them <em>memories</em> might be more appropriate. Stored through magic, just like these, even if they were never intended to be viewed.”<br/>
He seemed to get lost in thoughts for a moment, as he stared into the misty whirlpool.</p><p>“So, what happens now?” Maggie asked a few moments later.</p><p>Dumbledore turned to look at her.<br/>
“I believe the best course for you would be to study the mind arts, Miss Alster. You said you already had some control, and I believe if you apply yourself, you should be able to gain more control over your ability. At the very least, it should help you protect any secrets you might stumble upon.”</p><p>“The mind arts?” Maggie asked. “Like, like thought reading?”</p><p>He raised his eyebrows at that. “Legilimency, yes, that is one aspect, but I think you will be even more interested in Occlumency, which is used to protect your mind against outside influences.”</p><p>“And you think it will help me – help me not pass out anymore.”</p><p>“I believe you can do much more than <em>not pass out</em>, but yes, that will be the first goal.”</p><p>“Then I’m in,” Maggie said, before she could think any further. “I’ll do this mind art thing.”</p><p>Dumbledore smiled slightly.</p><p>“Good. I will talk to you Head of House to make some arrangements. But for now, I think you should go back to your regular lessons. If you hurry, you might still make it to divination in time.”</p><p>Maggie nodded and quickly went to leave his office, her thoughts racing now, thinking about the new possibilities. She broke into a smile.<br/>
She could get this under control. She <em>would</em> get this under control now. </p><p>For a moment, the future looked bright again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Wendelin the Weird</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The school stress starts to get to Maggie as she adds another subject to her schedule, and the people around her start to get worried.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry for the late update. I had some stuff going on this week that made it really hard to find the motivation to write and edit.</p><p>The last scene includes some discussion of the (sadly very real) witch-hunts and executions, which are mostly treated as a joke by Rowling.</p><p>I'm gonna take a break from posting next week to catch up, so the next chapter should come in two weeks.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Becky hadn’t been happy to leave behind her new classmate, but knew that there wouldn’t be any bargaining with Madame Pomfrey, so she had eventually left to go search for the divination classroom. Of course, the recent event had dampened her excitement considerably, now that she worried about Maggie. </p><p>But she had done what she could, right? If anyone could help her friend, it would be Madame Pomfrey. So she tried to let go of her worries, to focus on the future, as she eventually found her class, a good twenty or so students from all four houses, most of them people she hadn’t really interacted all that much with. Everyone looked around, until one of them finally spotted the trapdoor above them, just in time for the lesson, which just then suddenly opened, a silvery ladder descending.</p><p>They climbed up a ladder, into a circular room that looked nothing like any other classroom she had been in before. The room was filled with low tables, surrounded by comfy chairs, the windows covered by curtains that bathed the room in a dingy, red light, with shelves of tea cups and crystal balls and books and all kind of items that she couldn’t name yet. The room was warm, the air heavy with a potent mixture of scents, tea, smoke, incense, something flowery as well, and it felt like she had stepped into a different world. A small fire burning under a crowded mantelpiece stoking the heat, and fully inadequate at lighting up the room.</p><p>It took her a moment to spot the teacher, who was sitting in a big, comfy armchair in one corner, her patterned cloak and spangled shawl blending well enough into the environment.</p><p>“Is anyone here?” one of the boys said, not having spotted the teacher.</p><p>“Welcome,” she said, her voice soft and hypnotic, “How nice to see you in the physical world at last.”</p><p>The woman now stepped into the light. Under the big shawl, beaded necklaces, bangles and rings, was a rather thin woman, her eyes looking unnaturally big behind the thick glasses she was wearing, her hair bound into a barely contained ponytail at the back of her neck.</p><p>“Of course, we are still missing one, but she will join us soon enough. Sit my children, sit,” she said, and everyone started to look for a place, some of them filtering to back, where the fire was a bit less intense, while others tried to get a place closer to the front. “No, Miss Knowles, I think you would better sit closer to the door,” she was suddenly interrupted, “if you intend to keep a place for your friend.”</p><p>For a second, Becky, was surprised, before she remembered she was talking to a seer. Or talked to by a seer.</p><p>“Welcome to Divination,” the woman now said, addressing the class. “My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye.”</p><p>The professor continued her speech, occasionally giving out small predictions to the students, and starting up the hot water for tea.</p><p>Then, in a dramatic fashion, she turned around and looked towards the room, before giving a long sigh. “While I commend all of your willingness to learn, I must warn you. The Inner Eye is often a burden, more than a gift, especially in times as these. The specter of death is circling this castle, and I see him nearer everyday, waiting to strike, waiting to knock on the door -”</p><p>Suddenly, there was a knocking, and half the class flinched back in surprise, including Becky. But Trelawney didn’t seem any more concerned than before, and simply opened the trap door with a wand flick, the ladder again descending.</p><p>Everyone stared at the opening, everyone except Trelawney. Finally a head popped up.<br/>
“Sorry, I’m late.”</p><p>“Do not be, I have already seen it happen, so it couldn’t be avoided,” Trewlaney said, “please take a seat, we will start with tea leaves today.”</p><p>Maggie quickly slid into the seat besides Becky, opened the mouth, but then closed it again as Trelawney started lecturing. They would need to talk about what had happened, clearly.</p><p>-</p><p>The next few weeks were a lot tenser than before. Even if the twins didn’t use magic against her, they had found good fodder for their bullying in her sudden faint, telling everyone she was <em>deadly afraid</em> of ghost and making <em>ghostly gestures and noises</em> at her when there wasn’t a teacher nearby, a few of the other Slytherin’s clearly amused by the situation.</p><p>It didn’t help that, only two days later on their way to breakfast, Maggie almost ran into the Bloody Baron and had to make a weird evasive dance to avoid touching him. His name was accurate to his appearance, and Maggie had no wish to find out why.</p><p>Even if that meant everyone now thought she had some weird phobia towards ghosts.<br/>
Her roommates actually cornered her about that in the evening, to get some explanation.</p><p>“So, what really happened in History? Did Madame Pomfrey find out what they did to you?” Moira asked.</p><p>“No, it’s – I mean, it wasn’t a spell, it…” </p><p>Maggie shook her head at suddenly finding herself again in this situation. Madame Pomfrey had suggested that she tell someone – but she wasn’t sure. She hadn’t known her roommates longer than a week, after all.</p><p>“Um, it wasn’t a spell. Madame Pomfrey couldn’t tell me what happened, but she didn’t find anything <em>wrong</em> with me either,” she lied.</p><p>Becky and Moira didn’t look convinced.</p><p>“And it had nothing to do with falling into Professor Binns, and you avoiding the Bloody Baron with your little performance was unrelated.” Becky deadpanned.</p><p>“So what? No one likes walking into ghosts, right? Maybe I didn’t want any headaches today, okay,” she went on the offensive.</p><p>Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say, as her roommates exchanged a surprised look.</p><p>“Headaches?” Becky asked.</p><p>“You’ve never walked through a ghost, have you?” Moira added.</p><p>“Well, it’s not like and everyday thing. And I did <em>fall through</em> a ghost, if you remember.”</p><p>“Ghosts give you headaches?” Becky asked, sounding concerned.</p><p>“They’re ghosts. That’s why no one likes walking through them,” Maggie stated with fleeting confidence.</p><p>“No, they’re <em>cold</em>, like <em>jumping into ice-water</em>cold. I've never heard about someone getting a headache from walking through one,” Becky countered and stopped to think. “Can someone be allergic to a ghost?” she posited at Moira.</p><p>“Maybe? I never heard of anything like that. But I can’t believe you’ve never walked into a ghost,” Moira said, still looking at Maggie.</p><p>“Well I haven’t. And apparently, I shouldn’t, as we found out now,” she said. Maybe that would be enough. “Because of my <em>ghost-allergy</em>, that I… didn’t know I have,” she finished slowly.</p><p>“Ghost allergy.” Moira repeated flatly.</p><p>“Ghost allergy,” Becky nodded, “so why were you lying to us? We’re supposed to help each other, but how can we do that if you don’t let us?”</p><p>Maggie froze for a moment, <em>did she really just buy this?</em>, but then finally found her flow again. “Well, it’s – um – not <em>painly</em> – embarrassing, yes, I was embarrassed, because everyone is already making fun of me, and if the twins hear about this, you know they will not stop trying to use that to – make my life to hell,” she rattled down an explanation.</p><p>“Well, we’re not gonna tell them, right Moira,” Becky said to her friend, who still didn’t look entirely convinced.</p><p>“Uh, right. So you have to avoid touching ghosts because of your <em>allergy</em>, but you don’t want to tell that to anyone.”</p><p>Maggie nodded enthusiastically. Moira rolled her eyes.<br/>
“Yeah. No ghost touching, and I should be fine, probably,” she said.</p><p>“Well, I guess we can remember that.”</p><p>“Ghost allergy,” Becky whispered, sounding inappropriately excited.</p><p>Maggie made a sheepish face. “Ghost allergy.”</p><p>-</p><p>Not long after, Professor Moody turned Draco Malfoy into a ferret. Sadly, Maggie and her friends weren’t anywhere nearby when it happened and only heard about it afterwards through the rumor mill.</p><p>Of course, the other teachers made it very clear that the school didn’t condone such <em>teaching methods</em> which didn’t really reassure the Slytherin’s all that much. That hadn’t ever stopped Snape, after all. Moody would leave after the school year anyway and had a lot less to loose than the Head of Slytherin-</p><p>Maybe it should have been disconcerting for her as well, as a fellow Slytherin. Professor Snape had even made a short speech about the incident afterwards, with Malfoy standing at his side and looking a lot less snide than usual. Snape made clear that the whole thing wasn’t a laughing matter, and stared down everyone who even <em>thought about sniggering</em>.</p><p>Slytherins knew better than to make fun of Draco Malfoy. They were better than this.</p><p>They knew to wait until <em>after</em> Snape disappeared with a dramatic swish of his robes, Malfoy on his trail before they the first giggles broke out and the jokes started.</p><p>Drew in particular spent the next few days looking like Christmas had come early and Maggie couldn’t quite hide her relief as well.</p><p>Moody’s outburst couldn’t have come at a better time for her, after all. No one talked about her ghost incidence anymore, despite the twins attempts to keep the topic alive. They dropped it after an unsubtle thread from Moira to bring up the story in DADA. Even Becky got a snipe in this time, asking Flora what kind of animal she would like to end up as.</p><p>For a few days, Maggie forgot about everything bad and started to feel like she was becoming a part of this House.</p><p>This high stopped suddenly, as their group was walking around, joking about and ran directly into Professor Snape, who had his usual expression of complete disdain and stared them down. They went quiet quickly.</p><p>“Miss Alster, please accompany me to my office,” he said after a moment, only for Maggie’s friends to come to her defence - </p><p>“She didn’t do anything - “</p><p>“Professor, we’ve been with her all day - “</p><p>“Silence!” Professor Snape said harshly, “I did not ask for your input, Miss Blackwood, Mr. Gibbs. Nor did I accuse Miss Alster of anything, did I? Now, I will refrain from taking House points for now, for the sake of house unity.”</p><p>He turned around and stalked back. “Miss Alster?”</p><p>Maggie followed after him, her mind racing and trying to figure out why Snape would call her into his office. She gave her friends another look of confusion and worry that they returned in kind, before focusing on not losing her Head of House in the winding corridors of the Hogwarts dungeons. </p><p>“Is this about –“Maggie spoke up, the suspense killing her, but was interrupted.</p><p>“Not here! We will talk in my office.”</p><p>She already knew the way to Snape’s office, kinda. But with all the schoolwork, Maggie had yet to explore a lot of the castle and still sometimes found herself a bit lost, which is why she usually stuck with her classmates. But she still recognized the door to the Potions classroom, which was connected to Professor Snape’s office, when they arrived.</p><p>Her Head of House didn’t say another word as he led her in, past the empty tables and soot stained fireplaces, past the big collection of cauldrons of all shapes and sizes and towards a door close to the black board. Maggie followed, still not sure why he had brought here and even less sure if she wanted to find out. Professor Snape pulled out a key ring, and quickly unlocked the door before telling her to enter.</p><p>She knew were to find his office. But she hadn’t actually entered it until now. It was a dimly lit space, walls lined with cupboards that were loaded with what had to be hundreds of glass jars and bottles containing all kinds of animal and plant parts, that Maggie assumed to be rare potion ingredients. Their was a big, unlit fireplace, that only increased the gloominess with it’s blackened walls and its dark mantelpiece. Maggie also spotted a small collection of books in one corner, squished in between even more glass jars and bottles, and a big cupboard. In one corner she saw a small cauldron over a blue fire, the surface flat as a mirror.</p><p>“Take a seat,” Professor Snape instructed her, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk, which was loaded with piles of parchments and slim books. She sat down slowly, trying to keep him in her periphery.</p><p>Meanwhile, Snape went around with his wand in hand, murmuring incantations and spells that flowed across the walls and floors, and tickled slightly when they passed her feet. </p><p>“So, why am I here?” she tried again, getting fed up with the silence. Snape didn’t answer directly, instead finishing another spell, before turning abruptly and taking himself a seat at his desk and staring her down with piercing eyes.</p><p>“Headmaster Dumbledore has recently informed me of your situation and asked me to teach you about the Mind-Arts,” he started without preamble, “Of course, I have reminded him that only very few have a knack for them and <em>teenagers</em> usually lack the mental fortitude and maturity necessary. But he insisted that you, Miss Alster, are in dire need of such training, despite your age.”</p><p>Maggie lowered her eyes and nodded. “Professor Dumbledore has said that it might help with my condition,” she said quietly, then asked, “How much has he already told you, sir?”</p><p>Snape studied her with dark eyes, and again Maggie felt the need to look away, something about his look feeling off.</p><p>“The Headmaster has informed about your rare <em>talent</em>. However, he also mentioned that there were more secrets in your mind that, in the wrong hands, could turn out disastrous, which is why I had to make sure no one would listen in or spy on us.”</p><p>Maggie nodded.</p><p>“I cannot teach you to protect your mind without attacking it myself. Let me make it clear, Miss Alster, I have no interest in delving into the thoughts and secrets of some teenage girl, but if you are to learn, those secrets might be revealed to me anyway. If that is a problem, I would suggest you leave now and inform the headmaster that you have no interest in learning the Mind-Arts.”</p><p>Maggie clenched her hands. So learning to protect her thoughts would involve revealing those thoughts to a teacher, or at least the possibility of that happening. Of course it did, with the whole mind reading thing. She had been so caught up in the euphoria about gaining control that she hadn’t considered anything like that.</p><p>“I – um – can I think about it for a moment?” she asked. “Sir,” she added quickly, remembering who she was talking to.</p><p>Snape nodded shortly and with a wand gesture opened the door to the classroom. “Five minutes.”</p><p>“Um, thank you.” She left quickly and slumped onto one of the chairs outside, taking a deep breath.</p><p>She paced around the room, weighing her options. The choice had been easy with Dumbledore, but now she suddenly had doubts again. Was that really worth it? Could she trust Snape with her secrets – but then again, this wasn’t just about her past, was it? This was also about her future, about taking her life into her own hands.</p><p>This might be her only chance to learn to control what had always been a curse.</p><p>Maggie took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.</p><p>“Enter,” Snape drawled, and looked at her with raised eyebrows and the slightest hint of triumph. He expected her to bail, she now realized. </p><p>“I’m –“she started and stopped again. No need to rush, she reminded herself. “I mean,” she said, a bit slower, “Before I agree, I need to know that any secrets that get – are found during my training will not leave from- “she struggled to formulate, what was the right word again? “That my secret won’t be shared, that, I need to know that.” </p><p>“Sir,” she remembered a second later.</p><p>Snape sighed, and closed the door again.</p><p>“Mm. Maybe you belong in my House after all. Have a seat,” he said and opened a drawer to pull out a parchment and started writing.</p><p>“If you or I should unveil any personal secrets during your training, they shall not be talked or written about outside of this office. Is that good?” he asked.</p><p>Maggie was tempted to agree, before realizing the glaring loophole. </p><p>“Ye- no, that’s, um, you could still just tell anyone as long as you are here then,” she pointed out.</p><p>Professor Snape smirked, and erased a part of the words he had written out.</p><p>“How about – not be talked about with a third person nor written down, unless with clear consent from the other party?” he offered the amendment.</p><p>“That sounds better, but I’m not sure about what the second part means?” </p><p>Snape raised his eyebrows again, and Maggie added: “English is my second language.”</p><p>“It is an intentional loophole, in case you decide there is a secret you <em>want me to share or write down</em> for any reason.”</p><p>He finished writing and shifted the parchment towards her, letting her read the text for herself. She followed the words, her lips silently moving as she sounded out the sentence in her mind.</p><p>“That – that sounds good,” she said after a moment.</p><p>Snape nodded and duplicated the text onto a second parchment with a spell and quickly added his signature, before giving Maggie his quill. </p><p>“This is a simple contract spell. It can’t prevent anyone from breaking it, but it will identify anyone that does,” he explained before Maggie got a chance to sign. She hesitated for only a second, before dipping her quill into ink and signing both copies.</p><p>“Good. Now that this is taken care of,” Professor Snape after taking one of the papers and sending it into a nearby cupboard, “we can start with the basics.”</p><p>And before Maggie could get too excited, a big tome was slammed down in front of her, with a small parchment on top.</p><p>
  <em>Theory of the Mind-Arts.</em>
</p><p>“We’ll have lessons every Thursday evening. For now you can start reading the first chapter. We will start with the practical part once I am convinced you understand the theory,” he said, gestured towards a table in the other corner of the office and proceeded to ignore her in favor of a stack of parchments in front of him.</p><p>Maggie hesitated.</p><p>“Do you need help <em>reading as well</em>, Miss Alster?” he snarked, startling her slightly.</p><p>“Yes, um no, I mean, no, sir,” Maggie stammered and took the book to the other table to begin her work, quickly flipping through the pages to see what she was working with.</p><p>Chapter one was a lot longer than she wanted it to be. Too much to work through today if she did it properly. She could skim it, but there was now way Snape wouldn’t notice.</p><p>She took a deep breath and flipped back to page one. No way around this. She started to read the first sentence.</p><p>-</p><p>After the incident with Professor Binns, Ginny started to pay a lot more attention to the Slytherin’s in her year, especially the newest one. With the old rivalry between the houses, she had only ever payed attention to the bullies that attacked her and her friends, Draco and his posse being the most obnoxious ones. That there could be any infighting had never crossed her mind. Her brother’s had always told her that Slytherin’s were all the same. </p><p>But now that she actually payed attention, she noticed it was always the same handful of people making trouble, enabled by Snape’s favoritism.</p><p>She also suddenly found herself talking to a few of them, Becky being the easiest to talk to. At some point they talked about the disaster that was their first year, though it didn’t take long until Ginny couldn’t bear it and had to change the topic. While Ginny being kidnapped did become common knowledge, her true involvement in the events was only revealed to handful of people.</p><p>Paying attention to the Slytherin’s also meant that Ginny noticed when something changed. She noticed when, three weeks into the school year, the new girl started to spend a lot less time with her friends than before. </p><p>Asking Becky, the Slytherin could only agree that something had changed, but not give any explanation. “Sorry, I don’t know either. I mean, it seems like there something she wants to keep secret, so I wouldn’t tell you if I knew. But she hasn’t told me anything either.”</p><p>“Look Becky, it’s probably just the stress,” another Slytherin chimed in. Moira, as Ginny knew by now. Another Pureblood. “I tried to convince her to drop divination, but if she wants to take on too much - “</p><p>“Well, why drop <em>divination</em> and not Arithmancy. Even without taking it I see how much homework you two get for that,” Becky argued.</p><p>“Because she’s <em>bloody brilliant at it</em>, and it’s a way more useful subject for her future.“</p><p>“Just because you don’t have the <em>talent</em>, that doesn’t mean divination is <em>useless</em> - “</p><p>Ginny decided to remove herself from the discussion then, deciding she should probably check on Ron and Harry. With the 19th of September just a few days away, she needed to talk to them anyway.</p><p>She found them working on their own divination homework, sitting around star charts that didn’t look any less complicated than the Arithmancy homework she saw Hermione do so often. Ron sat on the low sofa, while Harry had taken a cushioned chair.</p><p>“So, you two got everything ready for Monday?” she said and laid herself lengthwise onto the sofa, her feet towards her brother. </p><p>“Well, according to Trelawney I’ll be probably be dead by then?” Harry joked, as Ron rudely pushed off his sister’s leg, while she attempted to take up as much space as possible, “Ginny, stop that.”</p><p>Eventually, she gave up and tucked her legs in. “You two do know that Monday is the 19th, right?” she asked.</p><p>“The 19th?” Harry repeated and looked up.</p><p>“Oh, right, Hermione’s 15th birthday,” Ron suddenly realized.</p><p>“Wait, that’s next Monday?” Harry asked, sounding slightly panicked. </p><p>“19th of September, just like last year,” Ginny deadpanned. “It’s kind of an annual thing, Harry.”</p><p>“Very funny, Ginny,” Harry responded and leaned back, lips pressed tightly together. “Can’t believe I almost forgot about it. You’ve got any quick gift idea’s, Ron?”</p><p>Ron shrugged, “I told Mom about it, she’ll probably send her a sweater and a cake or something. Maybe some history book? She likes that, right? Ginny, you’ve got anything?”</p><p>Ginny shrugged. “I’ve already got my gift ready since summer.”</p><p>“Flourish and Blots does owl delivery, right?” Harry asked.</p><p>“I think so?” her brother answered. “</p><p>Ginny leaned back, tuning out the conversation as her thoughts drifted back to the new student. A new student being secretive and stressed out. Something about that gave her a bad feeling, but so far nothing had happened. Maybe she was just a bit paranoid after the Quidditch World Cup.</p><p>“Hey, hey Ginny, what do you think?”</p><p>“Uh, what?” she answered, realizing she had no idea what they were talking about.</p><p>“Everything okay with you?” Ron asked, furrowing his brows in concern.</p><p>“Yes, everything’s fine,” she answered, “what were we talking about again?” </p><p>She didn’t need to bother them about this.</p><p>“We were just – are you sure it’s nothing?” Ron asked again, clearly not buying her nonchalance.</p><p>She sighed and sat up.</p><p>“It’s nothing. Just, there’s this new girl in my year, and she’s started acting kinda shifty and not telling anyone why. I don’t know. I just. Something feels off. But maybe she’s just stressed and I’m reading too much into it.”</p><p>“There’s a new girl in your year?” Harry asked, glancing around the common room.</p><p>“Yes? Maggie Alistair is her name, I think. You won’t find her here, she’s not in Gryffindor, and I barely know her anyway.”</p><p>“So what House is she in?” Ron leaned back and turned his head to her.</p><p>Ginny hesitated. “Slytherin?” she answered, already anticipating her brother’s reaction.</p><p>Ron groaned. “You’re worried because a <em>Slytherin</em> is acting <em>shifty</em>? Really, Ginny? That’s just what Slytherin’s do.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes and looked to Harry, who seemed a lot less amused then Ron, and caught her gaze with intense eyes.</p><p>“Do you think she’s planning something bad?” Harry said, sounding dead serious.</p><p>“What? No I…” she stopped to think, “I don’t think she’s <em>planning something bad</em>, just, I just think there’s something going on.”</p><p>“I mean, Harry’s got a point, she’s a Slytherin, right?” Ron added, though he sounded a lot more casual about it.</p><p>“Not every Slytherin is Draco Malfoy, Ron,” she said, “Forget about it, I’m probably just overthinking things, okay?”</p><p>Ron shrugged. “Works for me. Harry?”</p><p>Harry didn’t look ready to drop it as easily.<br/>
“If you think there’s something bad going on, Ginny - “</p><p>“Look, Harry, can you please just leave it be? I don’t know that this is <em>anything</em>, it’s just some bad feeling, so you don’t need to get all Boy-Who-Lived about this, okay?”</p><p>“Sure.” He glanced to the side.</p><p>Ginny narrowed her eyes and stood up. </p><p>“Harry, just promise me you’ll let this go for now, please? If I think something bad is going down, you’ll be the first to hear about it, but I don’t want you to <em>stalk my classmate</em> because I had a bad feeling.”</p><p>“I don’t <em>stalk people</em>!?” Harry defended himself. “Ron, I don’t do that, do I?”</p><p>Ron took a deep breath. “Of course not, but you can get a bit <em>intense</em> if you think someone’s secretly evil, I mean, all with good reason.”</p><p>“Good! Then this won’t be a problem.” Ginny slumped back down onto the sofa. “Now, what were you two just talking about?”</p><p>-</p><p>The addition of Snape’s lessons had only worsened her already tight schedule, as Maggie figured out soon enough. None of the teachers seemed to have a concept that there were any subjects beside their own, giving their students mountains of homework and chipping away at what little free-time she had.</p><p>Potions essays for Snape about all the uses of Monkshood, Translations and vocabulary for Professor Babbling, dream journals for Trelawney, the list of things to do and learn seemed never ending and even with the help of her roommates, Maggie found herself often at the end of her patience. Barely was there a day that she didn’t end exhausted and tired.</p><p>Of course, the Mind-Arts weren’t an unsubstantial part of this. After Snape eventually decided that Maggie was finally versed enough in the Theory, the practical part had begun, which so far mostly consisted of Snape telling her to <em>clear her mind</em>, before assaulting her with his legilimancy. Even failing to keep him out was tiring, and when she finally managed to block him for a few seconds, she was soon rewarded with headache, making the rest of the lesson a painful slog, as she had forgotten Madame Pomfrey’s medicine in her dorm room that day and Snape insisted she continue despite the <em>discomfort</em>. </p><p>There was a memorable day were Professor Moody took the whole class out to the boat house and onto the Black Lake, for his <em>practical lessons</em>, where he wanted them to lure grindylows to better understand their behavior in nature. It ended with half the class drenched in cold water, and two grindylow bites. Moody didn’t seem perturbed by these results, and it took a talk with Dumbledore for him to agree to take more precautions next time. He didn’t seem happy, though.</p><p>Then there was History of Magic. Not wanting a repeat of what happened in her first lesson, Maggie and her friends always kept an eye on the Carrows when leaving and Maggie was adamant about no letting her guard down now.</p><p>There was also the fact that they were now starting on the European witch-hunts that eventually resulted in the Statute of Secrecy. With his monotone voice, Professor Binns somehow made even that sound boring and Maggie became more focused on her textbook than his monologue.</p><p>She didn’t like the textbook. “Who wrote this thing?” she said to no one in particular when she read the passage about Wendelin the Weird, a notorious witch that Maggie knew to be responsible for inciting more than a dozen witch-hunts at least. “They talk about the burnings, like they’re some kind of funny joke.”</p><p>“I mean, if the witches didn’t really get burnt…” the girl beside her answered.</p><p>“But <em>that’s not what happened</em>!” Maggie raised her voice, suddenly feeling very indignant about the book. She might have gone a bit too loud, she noticed, as suddenly Mr. Binns stopped in his monologue.</p><p>“Was there something important you want to share with the class, Miss Easter?” Professor Binns asked in his monotone.</p><p>She knew he expected her to just excuse herself. Two weeks ago, she might have had the patience to do so. But right now, Maggie felt very much like speaking up.</p><p>“The book is wrong.” she challenged.</p><p>“Oh, if your copy is damaged, you should go to the library and ask Madam Pince for assistance. Anyway - “</p><p>“No. I mean, what’s written inside is wrong.</p><p>They write about the witch hunt like no one ever got hurt, like it was mostly a big joke for witches and wizards. </p><p>They talk about Wendelin the Weird like she was some quirky jokester, even though almost a hundred people were tortured or killed in the witch-hunts she started,” she said, remembering what she had already learned in her old life.</p><p>“Well, just because the book doesn’t mention such small details, doesn’t mean it’s wrong -“ Professor Binns started to defend the vile piece of literature.</p><p>Maggie stood up and looked around the room. “How many of you can perform a Flame-Freezing Charm? Without a Wand? Or how about the bubble-head charm? Because not all witches were <em>burnt</em>, many were drowned as well. Or hanged, or decapitated, don’t forget about that. What <em>simple charm</em> will you save your from that?”</p><p>“Miss Easter -” Professor Binns tried to interrupt her again, putting as much authority into his voice as he could.</p><p>“My name is Alster,” she corrected him then turned back to the class, “Do you really think the witch hunters wouldn’t take away wands <em>before</em> putting someone to death? The only reason <em>Wendelin the Mad</em> didn’t burn is because she <em>orchestrated her own burnings</em>, not caring about what would happen after.”</p><p>She gave Professor Binns a challenging look, but the ghost for once didn’t try to stop her. She picked up the book and held it up.</p><p>“This book only talks about the <em>actual witches</em>, only about the few hundred that had magic.  It barely <em>mentions</em> the tens of thousands that didn’t, but were still killed for the crime of <em>being a witch<em>.”</em></em></p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“To be fair, this is <em>History of Magic</em>, Miss Alster,” Professor Binns argued, “So you can’t expect this book to include <em>Muggle History</em> as well.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“But she’s right.” Someone else piped up. Maggie turned, and spotted a girl with bright red hair. “You can’t talk about the witch-hunts without talking about muggles. So why shouldn’t their victims be included?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Of course <em>you</em> would come to Muggle defense, Weasley, with your muggle-loving father,” Hestia drawled from another corner. “If we talked about every instance Muggles killed other Muggles, there wouldn’t be time left to learn any <em>useful</em> history.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Now Moira and Becky stood up as well. “I’m with Maggie on this. They were still killed <em>as witches</em>, weren’t they? Same as us.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Now the Carrows and a few other students stood up as well, as everyone felt the tension grow and started paying attention in a subject most treated as a sleeping period.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“AHEM!” Professor Binns asserted himself again, and started addressing the class. “I can see that there are some very strong opinions about this topic. Miss Alster brings up a good point. While your textbooks <em>will be</em> fully sufficient to prepare you for any of my or the ministry’s exams, they can only offer a limited perspective on the past. It is <em>History of Magic</em>, after all.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Miss Alster, as you seem to be very <em>motivated</em> about this topic, how about you and your classmates prepare your own presentation as to why the non-magical victims should be given more attention in <em>History of Magic</em>. Miss Kerry, you will prepare a counter presentation to defend the current syllabus.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“What? I never agreed to -” Hestia started, sounding annoyed, while Maggie quickly agreed, “Okay, Professor Binns.” and countered Hestia’s dirty look with a slight smirk.<br/>
“Okay, fine. How hard can it be, anyway,” Hestia accepted the challenge.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Professor Binns nodded. “You have two weeks to prepare, we’ll hold the presentation on Wednesday before Halloween. Now, if <em>everyone would please sit down again.</em>. We’ve still got a lot to cover today.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Maggie sat down again, her eyes glued to Hestia and her twin, who were both shooting her dirty looks now. </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>She barely cared she had just added one more thing to her tightly packed schedule. She knew she was in the right. She could only win.</em>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. A Cold Reception</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>While all of Hogwarts is busy preparing for the other schools, Maggie gets into a fight over her secrets. Also, everyone curious about the students from the other schools.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In the books, the Durmstrangs sleep on the boat, but I had somehow plotted this under the assumption that they stayed with Slytherin, so a slight canon divergence there.</p><p>I skipped over the debate scene, as the chapter was already long enough and it didn't seem too important; Maybe it will be included if I ever make a revised version.</p><p>This is also a chapter that heavily parallels a chapter in the original Goblet of Fire. In those cases I always try to give a new perspective on the events, but I know my narration isn't quite comparable with the original.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The end of October was rapidly approaching now, and Maggie had never been more busy in her life. If her her schoolwork wasn’t enough, the whole school was now preparing for the arrival of the other schools and the teachers involved everyone in the clean up.</p><p>Professor Snape informed the Slytherins that the Durmstrangs would be housed with their House for the rest of the year, which was met with a lot of excitement. It also meant their House was under a lot of scrutiny; the Prefects wanted <em>everything</em> cleaned and tidied, even the dorm rooms that were usually left alone. </p><p>The only bright spot was hearing Draco and his posse complain about the manual labor, “He’s treating us like muddy house-elves,” as for once he couldn’t wriggle himself out of it. Snape seemed hellbent on everything being perfect for the arrival of the Durmstrangs.</p><p>So now Maggie and her friends were tidying up their dorm room, cleaning and reorganizing. They had already relocated the Wall of Memories from above Maggie’s bed a few weeks ago, and Becky was contemplating over which of her many posters she absolutely needed to keep, while Moira was organizing their books into an orderly collection on one shelf. Maggie was a bit absentminded, thinking about the presentation she had accidentally brought onto herself and still had to finish preparing. Both her friends and the Weasley girl had offered their help, yes, but Maggie still needed to do her own work and had turned down Becky’s offer to write the thing for her, even if the other witch had argued that it wasn’t a big deal.</p><p>This was something Maggie had brought onto herself, after all.</p><p>“Hey,  is this one of your books?” she heard Moira call, holding up a book, <em>The Heroes of Hogwarts</em> printed on the cover. “Is this some kind of history book or - “ She put a finger on the side of the cover to open the book.<br/>Maggie didn’t think long, rushed over, snatched the book from her friend and stuffed it under her clothes.</p><p>Moira looked at her with wide eyes, and Maggie knew she needed a <em>really good excuse</em>, and she needed it fast. But for a few awkward seconds, nothing came as her friend looked at her with a mix of confusion, concern and hurt.</p><p>“Sorry, I…” Maggie started, but still couldn’t find what to say, her mind for once drawing a blank, arms clasped around the book that was full of knowledge and pictures of a future that yet to happen. Full of knowledge she had done her best to ignore so far and definitely couldn’t share with anyone.</p><p>Moira crossed her arms, confusion turning to anger.</p><p>“Okay, that is enough. What is going on with you, Maggie? And don’t tell me it’s nothing. You’ve been cagey and secretive for weeks, and now you attack me over some history book?”</p><p>“I…” She looked towards Becky, who was now paying attention to them and made her way over to Moira. But no convenient lie appeared, nothing that would allow her to keep her secrets and get everything back to how it was supposed to be.</p><p>Maggie lowered her eyes. “I can’t tell you. Sorry,” she said, unable to meet their eyes.</p><p>Moira threw up her arms. “Great! Keep your secrets,” she huffed and started pushing in books with a bit too much force, “but don’t expect my help if you get yourself into a mess you can’t fix.”</p><p>“Moira,” Becky said, gently laying a hand on her friends shoulder, but the other witch kept stubbornly rearranging books and ignoring them.</p><p>Becky turned towards Maggie, her brows furrowed in concern. “Maggie, we are just worried, okay? Moira’s right, you’ve been on edge for weeks, you disappear all the time and you’re clearly trying to hide <em>something</em> from us.”</p><p>“I don’t <em>disappear</em>, I just – I have a lot going on right now, okay?” Maggie defended herself.</p><p>“Yeah, that’s why you almost <em>assault me</em> over some stupid book,” Moira snapped, not looking in her direction.</p><p>“It’s not stupid, it’s – ugh, can we please drop it already? I’m sorry, okay!?” Maggie said, frustrated, still clutching the book to her chest. Why had she been so careless with this thing!</p><p>Moira rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything.</p><p>With a huff, Maggie stalked towards the door, not wanting to wait for anymore questions she couldn’t answer or lie her way out of. She needed some time to think.</p><p>“Is it dangerous?” Becky’s question stopped her in her tracks.</p><p>“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” she said, and stalked down the hallway to find some secluded place to take a breath and think, the book feeling heavy in her arms.</p><p>-</p><p>While the mood in her dorm had become icy after the argument, the rest of the school was buzzing with excitement over the impending arrival of the other schools. Everyone was exchanging rumors and questionable knowledge about the other schools, some of which were <em>definitely</em> false, like the idea that <em>Durmstrang</em> was a secret lair for the Rotfang conspiracy, or that Beauxbatons had been built using the bones of slain giants.</p><p>Draco Malfoy repeated the story of how his father had almost send him to Durmstrang as he was close friends with the current Headmaster, but was swayed by his mother’s wishes.</p><p>“Well, wouldn’t that have been great, Hogwarts without Malfoy,” Drew said to the group under his breath after they were forced to hear the story for the fourth time. They were sitting in a corner in of the common room and playing cards. With Moira showing her the cold shoulder and Maggie not knowing how to make it right without revealing everything, she had been spending a lot more time with the boys now. Drew had offered to teach her some card games.<br/>Maggie stared at her hand and at the cards already on the table, laboring over the rules in her head, before finally laying down a card.</p><p>“Thanks for the thing in History, by the way.” Drew said, before putting down the next card. </p><p>Maggie furrowed her brows. “But I lost! You’ve heard Prof. Binns, he’s still wouldn’t concede <em>anything</em>, even after everything we said and did. Even with all the sources we’ve gathered, he still said they were <em>irrelevant</em>! That it didn’t matter.”</p><p>She smacked down another card, picturing Hestia’s smug face after her unearned victory.</p><p>“Sure, but who cares what Professor Binns thinks. He’s a ghost, and they are notorious for being stuck in their ways. But you still made them <em>listen</em>.” He put down another card, his hand getting pretty small now. “Have you looked at the rest of the classroom? They were all mad when Binns declared Hestia the winner. You made them think. That’s a victory in my books.”</p><p>He put down his last card, winning the game. “Sorry,” he said, but didn’t look apologetic at all. Maggie slammed her remaining cards down and groaned, before glancing at her watch.</p><p>“Oh, Mist, I’ve gotta go,” she stood up, “Thanks for the game.” And started running. She had almost forgotten about today’s lesson with Snape.</p><p>By now, she knew her way around the dungeons, and after a few hectic moments found herself in front of the potions classroom.</p><p>Maggie only gave a short knock on the door, before opening it (Snape had told her to wait in the classroom) and slipping in. Then she noticed that the classroom wasn’t empty.</p><p>An electric blue eye was pinned to her, as she stared into the face of her Defense against the Dark Arts teacher.</p><p>“Professor Moody, what -”</p><p>“I thought I should give Severus a surprise visit, for <em>old times sake</em>,” he grinned at her with a slight manic glint, “just to remind him that I’ve got an <em> eye on him</em>, should he think about going back to his old ways!”</p><p>Maggie swallowed. Even after all those weeks, something about this man still unsettled her, no matter how many times she told herself that was <em>harmless</em>. Or rather, that he had no intention to <em>harm her</em>.</p><p>“Okay, um, I’m supposed to meet with Professor Snape here?” she said, looking towards the office door.</p><p>“Then you’re out of luck. As I said, I also wanted to have a talk with him, but it seems he isn’t here today,” he said, “are you sure you’ve got the right time?”</p><p>Maggie checked her watch again. “Yes, definitely.” She furrowed her eyebrows and sighed, all that stress for nothing. She plopped down her bag on a table. “I guess I’ll have to wait for a bit.”</p><p>Moody magic eye started flitting around the room again, as his darker one was still trained on her. She knew this eye could see through anything, as he had often demonstrated during his lessons. (And that had been a topic of discussion in the dorm.) She suddenly wondered where the limit was. Could he see all the way to the Lake from here?</p><p>Moody harrumphed and stalked towards a glass cabinet, examining it closely. “So, what did you do to earn Snape’s ire?”</p><p>“What?” Maggie asked, caught of guard.</p><p>“You’re a Slytherin, and Snape is known to give his students preferential treatment. So I find it hard to believe he’d give one of his snakes detention over some minor infraction.”</p><p>He looked at her with both eyes now. Maggie kept her mouth shut. Don’t start talking until you know what you want to say, she reminded herself. Moody thought she was here for detention, giving her a good excuse – Oh, right!</p><p>“It’s about Malfoy,” she mumbled, looking to the side.</p><p>“Draco Malfoy?”</p><p>“Yes. I made a few comments after, um, the whole ferret thing, and I guess Professor Snape didn’t find them funny. I’m not sure <em>how he found out</em>, but he’s really protective about Malfoy, and I apparently was a bit careless.” She thought about how Snape had taken her to his office that day. “I mean, you’d think he’d be over it by now, wouldn’t you?”</p><p>Moody stared for a moment, as Maggie tried to hold his gaze. Then his mouth split into a crooked grin. “Yeah, that sounds about right for Severus Snape. Always been a petty bastard and bad loser, that one. Normally unjust punishment is something you should talk to your Head of House about,” he had begun pacing again, studying the objects displayed along the classroom wall, “but of course that isn’t an option in your case. Maybe we should go find Snape and I could have a bit of a word with him instead, hm?”</p><p>Maggie shrugged, “It’s not that bad. I’ll be more careful in the future.” She had to dial back a bit, this was <em>not</em> what she wanted. “Constant Vigilance, and all that. I mean, he’s still gonna be my Head of House after this. I don’t want to make him my enemy, Professor Moody.”</p><p>“Hrmf. Fine. But if you change your mind about this, you can always come to my office, understood?”</p><p>“Of course, sir.”</p><p>But before they could talk about anything else, Moodys fake eye swiveled to the side and seemed to track something outside. “I’ll see you in the next Defense lesson, Miss Alster,” and he left quickly after that, leaving her alone in the classroom again.</p><p>Not long after that, the class room door swung open widely, and Professor Snape entered the room, stalking towards the office without even looking her direction. He seemed slightly more annoyed than usually, and Maggie wondered if it was connected to whatever Moody had wanted to talk about.</p><p>She stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder again, made her way towards the door and knocked, “Come in”, entered and looked at Snape studying a number of parchments.</p><p>“Is it anything important, Miss Alster?” he asked, not even looking up at her.</p><p>“I, um, isn’t today time for my <em>lessons</em>, sir?” </p><p>“Your <em>special instructions</em> for today are canceled, Miss Alster. With the imminent arrival of the other schools, I have much more important matters to attend to.”</p><p>Maggie fell silent for a moment, not wanting to risk any <em>actual detention</em> over a snarky comment.</p><p>“Go back to your Common Room, Miss Alster. I will make an address later this evening, and I want <em>everyone</em> in attendance.”</p><p>“Okay,” Maggie nodded and turned to leave, expecting Snape to add something.</p><p>“Your lessons will continue on the tenth.”</p><p>There it was. A few weeks with a bit more free time -</p><p>“I expect you to keep up the exercises from chapter five in the meantime.”</p><p>Or not.</p><p>“Understood,” Maggie mumbled and left.</p><p>-</p><p>In the evening, Snape made his appearance in the Common Room and everyone was made to listen to yet another speech about the values of Slytherin, and how they were all expected to be on their <em>best behavior</em> while the Durmstrang students stayed with their House.</p><p>Snape also gave a short introduction on Durmstrang to dispell a few of the more offensive rumors. </p><p>The school had a long dueling tradition, and, as Snape had been informed, a few of their candidates were on the way of becoming professionals in dueling circles, which was why they spent so many hours dusting the old dueling chamber that hadn’t been in use for half a century.</p><p>While accepting students from all over Europe, Durmstrang had adopted German as their primary language since the sixteenth century, but the headmaster had assured him that all of his students had sufficient English skills to join the sixth and seventh years for lessons.</p><p>He didn’t say anything about the whole Dark Arts rumor though, which most students took as confirmation, some with excitement, others with frowns.</p><p>And again he harped on about them representing not only Slytherin, but the whole of Hogwarts in how they behaved around their guests. No matter how famous or renowned some of them might be, he expected only the best of his House.</p><p>All in all, they expected about a dozen or so guests, not including the headmaster, all in the age range between seventeen and eighteen, which would be housed with the rest of the students for the remainder of the year.</p><p>Then his speech had finally come to an end, and the students dispersed into little groups again. Maggie found herself in a group with Drew, Neil and Serina, then Moira and Becky joined them as well. She felt unsure what to say. She still hadn’t figured out how to make things right with them.</p><p>When Draco started again with his whining about not being allowed to participate and bragging that he could <em>easily</em> win, the group decided to relocate to the less crowded private library.</p><p>“So, who do you think is coming that Snape is <em>so intent</em> on making sure we’re on our best behavior?”, Serina asked into the round.</p><p>“What do you mean,” Neal asked, “they are also still students, aren’t they?”</p><p>“Neal, you gotta use that pretty head of yours. He basically told us that someone there is quite famous, and that’s clearly why he’s so afraid we wont behave. So, who do you think it is?” she smiled in the round.</p><p>“Maybe one of those dueling champions? He said one of them had won competitions?” Becky offered, “Does anyone here follow these kind of things?”</p><p>“Maybe Quinton? I mean, he’s really into sports, isn’t he?” Moira asked.</p><p>“Nah, Quinton only cares about Quidditch, last I checked,” Drew answered, “Trust me on this, he wallpapered his wall with all those posters and articles. So unless they’ve got a famous quidditch player with them, I don’t think he’d know anything.”</p><p>“Wait, Maggie, didn’t they have a dueling club at your school?” Serina asked and pointed towards her.</p><p>“Yeah, a pretty successful one. The best ones even got to compete in the Junior League Championship of the DAME each year, but I don’t remember anyone winning the thing.”</p><p>“So, you were in the dueling club?” Neal asked.</p><p>“What’s the <em>dam-e</em>?” Becky asked, her curiosity overwriting any ill will for now.</p><p>“The Dueling Associaton of Magical Europe,” Maggie supplied, “and no, they only accepted third years and above in the dueling club. Something about safety and fairness, I think.<br/>Wait, why doesn’t Hogwarts have a dueling club?”</p><p>“Our DADA teacher started one in first year, but then he lost his memory and I guess the next one didn’t want to start a new one? I don’t know, the last two years have been really <em>weirddummy thing</em>?” Serina led the conversation back to the initial question.</p><p>“<em>Dah-Meh</em> and yes, they do compete. And they usually win, too, though they have a reputation of really <em>pushing the rules</em>. <br/>Um, sorry Seri, I haven’t really kept up with the championship lately,” at least not with the <em>1994 one</em>, “so I don’t remember any famous names there, but Durmstrang sending a dueling champion does sound like something they would do.”</p><p>“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow then…” </p><p>“Isn’t Flitwick a retired Dueling Champion?” Drew cut in.</p><p>“I’m not breaking curfew to <em>gossip with Flitwick</em>, Drew. So no one has any idea?”</p><p>They all shrugged.</p><p>“Fine. Guess I’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” Serina said  and left the library, clearly looking for someone else she could interrogate.</p><p>“So, Moira, do you want to look at Arithmancy together?” Maggie offered, trying to bridge the awkwardness.</p><p>“No thanks. I think I’d rather do that <em>alone</em>. I’m sure your understand.”</p><p>“Okay, I … “ but Moira was already leaving, Becky in tow, who gave Maggie a sheepish look, but didn’t come to her defense either. “Yeah, guess I’ll do that alone then.”</p><p>She looked to Neal, who raised his hands, “Hey, you know I don’t do that number nonsense.”</p><p>Maggie rolled her eyes at his unhelpfulness. As always, she was on her own when it came to fixing her problems. She left the library, only vaguely hearing a muffled <em>’what?’</em> and Drew saying something to his friend, as she racked her brains about who to ask for advice.</p><p>This definitely wasn’t a Snape situation, and she wouldn’t even try with Dumbledore over something so trivial. Becky was clearly Moira’s friend first and Serina seemed to busy looking for gossip now.</p><p>She had to chuckle at the absurd thought of asking the <em>twins</em> for advice. Even if they weren’t her enemies, she doubted they would have anything useful to say.</p><p>For the first time in a long while, Maggie wished she was back at her old school, with the friends that she knew and without all the secrets she had to keep.</p><p>She shook her head. No use dwelling on the future over this. She could only act in the present.</p><p>Maybe she could try apologizing again? It hadn’t worked the first time, but that could have just been her not using the right words; After all, she still carried her dictionary with her most days.</p><p>A second try couldn’t hurt, right?</p><p>-</p><p>The next morning, they arrived to a Great Hall that had already been decorated for the arrival of the other schools. Each house was flying its own banners, with the biggest banner hung up behind the teachers table showing the Hogwarts Crest glowing in the light of the morning sun.</p><p>Still unsure how to approach her roommates, Maggie sat down next to Serina instead, who had stayed neutral in the whole thing. With the arrival of the other school scheduled for the evening, the hall was just as alight with gossip and speculations as the common room yesterday.</p><p>Maggie started eating, as Serina continued explaining what new ideas had come to her over night. </p><p>“So I haven’t found anything about dueling, but Durmstrang is also known for being very selective about their students, right, so a lot of purebloods like to send their students there, you know, like the really big names and even nobility and all that.</p><p>So I thought that’s the reason Snape was so nervous, because one or two of those kids come from one of those super important families, so someone we might know only by their last name, so I asked Hestia if could take a look at her copy of <em>The Most Pure and Potent<em> to see if there’s anyone of the right age that isn’t at Hogwarts.” Serina stopped for a yawn.</em></em></p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Did you even sleep?” Maggie asked, noticing the dark rings under her classmates eyes.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Sleep is for the weak. Anyway, I’ve found nineteen potential candidates with the right age that I’m pretty sure don’t go to Hogwarts, but of course Hestia’s book doesn’t tell you anything except name, age and relations, nothing about which school they attend, but again, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are the most prestigious in Europe, except for Hogwarts of course.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>She took a breath that turned into another yawn.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“You think they send some pureblood nobility to compete in a potentially deadly tournament?” Drew asked, skeptical.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“I mean, it’s supposed to be safer this time, right? And those families are all about fame and projecting a positive image, even if they don’t need the price money.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Not to mention how people like Draco run around thinking they can do anything, of course they would at least try to compete,” Maggie muttered, thinking the idea rather likely, “um, no offense, Serina.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Of course, she could easily find out before anyone else, if she just … No. It was only half a day. She  really shouldn’t open that book for something so trivial. (She shouldn’t open that book at all.)</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“None taken, anyway, there are some <em>really powerful</em> families between those nineteen, even some straight up nobility, so if any of those are coming it would definitely explain Snape’s attitude.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Neal had been strangely quiet throughout all that talk, Maggie now realized. Looking at his face, he wore a poorly suppressed smile, looking pretty smug.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Hey Neal, what do you think?” Serina asked, who had noticed the same thing now.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Me? Oh, I already know what student Snape meant.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“You What?! Spill, Robbins!” Serina exclaimed. </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Well, I asked Quinton the other night, and he was a lot more helpful than expected.” He stopped, wearing that insufferable smirk.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“And?!” Serina asked, leaning across the table, her jumper dangerously close to the marmalade on her half eaten toast.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Neal didn’t answer, instead continuing his breakfast as if he hadn’t said anything.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Oh, don’t worry. You’ll find out soon enough, won’t you?” He leaned forward and bit into his toast.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Really, in front of my bacon?” Drew complained, and the two of them quickly leaned back again and protested. “We aren’t -” “That wasn’t - “</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“So Maggie, any progress on your roommate problem?” Drew cut them off, changing the topic.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Maggie shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to try apologizing again or whatever.” </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with wanting some privacy, Magpie.” Serina piped up, “We are Slytherin’s. I still don’t get why they are so upset about a bit of secrecy.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Exactly, nothing wrong with keeping something to yourself,” Neil added smugly.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Serina narrowed her eyes at him, before turning back to Maggie. “But if you can solve this whole affair with a few empty words, all the better in my eyes.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Maggie pursed her lips at the casual accusation. “Well, maybe I <em>really am</em> sorry, Seri, ever considered that?” </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Serina rolled her eyes. “Come on, you’ve got nothing to be sorry about. If anything, Moira’s clearly making a mountain out of a mole hill here.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Maggie bit back her response. “I’m gonna apologize and get this whole thing over with.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Serina shrugged and let her gaze travel across the Slytherin table, before standing up abruptly and swaying slightly before finding her balance.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“I’ll go find Quinton. I’m sure he’ll just <em>love</em> to tell me about that Durmstrang student,” she told Neal with a wide smile.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Fine. Have fun talking about quidditch for the next half hour,” Neal countered.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Maybe I will?” And with that, she was off to question their local quidditch aficionado.<br/>-</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Over the next few hours, Maggie tried to find the right moment to give Moira a proper apology, but the other Slytherin was very good at avoiding talking to her. Soon they found themselves at the end of the last lesson of the day, after which the teacher brought them to the Great Hall. Here the Heads of Houses ordered them into lines based on the year and House, before leading them out onto the Hogwarts grounds.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>They lined up in order of year, with the first years in the front, the stone paved street leading towards the castle in plain view of everyone. Maggie found herself at one end of the Slytherins and close to the Gryffindors. She recognized her neighbor as the red head from History of Magic. Ginny.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Trying to quiet them down was a futile endeavor, even with combined might of McGonagall and Snape for once working towards the same goal, so much excitement was permeating the student body, everyone whispering about what would happen next as they waited for the other schools.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Any idea on how they’ll arrive?” Ginny whispered towards her neighbors.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Wouldn’t they just come like everyone else, with the train and the carriages?” Maggie heard a slightly pudgy Gryffindor with blonde hair answer. He stood in the row behind them, so she assumed him to be a fourth year.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Nah, they’ll probably do something to show off, just like everyone at Quidditch this summer.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Ginny noticed Maggie then. “Hey, aren’t you a transfer or something? What do you think?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Um, yes, but I’m not from Durmstrang, I only know them from reputation as well,” she quickly clarified.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“I mean, we used river boats to get to my old school, cause it’s close to this big river.” She stared at the Black Lake. “Is this lake connected to the ocean?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Not on the surface, but I think there are some underwater tunnels that the merpeople use.” The blonde Gryffindor offered. “You think they’d use a boat?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“I mean, we are on an island, aren’t we?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Huh, I guess we are. Never thought of it like that.” </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>As the minutes ticked by, students craned their necks to look for any sign of the arrival, but everything seemed eerily still, and Maggie slowly felt her legs get tired from standing in one spot. By now, the sun had already set, and the landscape was dipped into blues and blacks.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Finally, Dumbledore called out, “Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>There were shouts of ‘where’, until a sixth pointed to above the forbidden forest, “There,” and Maggie started to see something big glide high over the treetops as students speculated loudly about what it was, someone even throwing in ‘dragon’ as an option.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>After a moment of excited shouts, it finally came close enough for Maggie to make out more details, and she realized it was a large carriage, drawn by big, winged horses. For a moment she wondered how the whole delegation could fit into a single carriage, before thinking that something about the whole thing looked off.<br/>Only a few seconds later she realized why.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>The carriage wasn’t just large, it was the size of good sized house. Closer up, the horses turned out to be roughly elephant sized, looking perfectly proportionate to the carriage. With only the clouds to compare, Maggie eyes had mistaken it for a normal sized carriage at first.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Of course that illusion broke as the whole thing descended and almost shook the earth when the horses touched ground, making a few students jump back in fear of getting caught under the giant machine. The boy next to her stumbled back onto a sixth year Slytherin in the commotion.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>The carriage came to a halt, a golden crest decorating the over-sized doors. They opened a little and a student in light blue robes jumped out, messed with his wand somewhere underneath the opening, and pulled out a golden set of stairs. Only then did the door open fully, and a truly impressive woman stepped out, big enough to enough to rival Hagrid and explaining the size of the carriage.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Wrapped into black satin and decorated with gemstone jewelry, she quickly walked over to Dumbledore, who greeted her and exchanged a few pleasantries. But Maggie was more interested in the students that would join them. </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>She counted fourteen students among the delegation, all wearing blue silk uniforms that were probably meant for much warmer weather, and elegant blue hats. All of them had clearly put some time into their appearance before the flight, to the point that Maggie felt somewhat under-dressed in her rather simple black cloak. </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>She quickly let her eyes glide across their faces – did they make <em>being handsome</em> a condition for entering, she mused, when her eyes caught sight of what she could only think of as possibly the most beautiful girl in the world.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>The girl was talking to her classmates in quick French, vowels flowing in quick succession and blending into something unintelligible, her perfect brows furrowing at something …</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Hey! Anyone home?” She felt a jab to her upper arm, and saw that it had been Ginny who had broken her trance. Looking, she saw that the clumsy boy was rubbing his arm as well.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“You were staring, Neville.” </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“I wasn’t staring!” the boy protested, “Just getting a good look at the Bow-battons.” </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“It’s <em>Beauxbâtons</em>,” another Gryffindor corrected him under her breath.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>During the commotion, the giant headmistress had finished her conversation with Dumbledore, and was now leading her students into the castle to warm up. The Hogwars students remained outside, still waiting for Durmstrang.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Maggie shuffled her legs, feeling them become sore from standing still for too long. As the most of the students looked towards the horizon, Maggie glanced towards the road and then the lake. Ginny was right, she admitted, they wouldn’t arrive without a spectacle.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>They definitely wouldn’t fly all the way, she figured. Durmstrang was hidden somewhere in the far north, way too long a distance to travel on broom, especially in in autumn with it’s stormy weather. And a few witches on brooms wouldn’t be all that impressive, would it? Especially after the Quidditch World Cup. So unless they flew in on a</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“You think they’ll come from the Lake?” Ginny muttered, following her eyes. “How?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Muggles have submarines, don’t they. Maybe they’ve got something like that?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Submarines?” Neville asked curious. </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Ships that travel underwater? I think they’ve been around for almost, um, half a century or so.”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“I don’t think Durmstrang would use something so Muggle,” Ginny said, but kept her eyes on the lake.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>And so they were one of the first to notice when the wave pattern changed, water rushing down and turning, as a long wooden spine started to rise, that Maggie soon recognized as the tip of a mast.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>The water churned and sprayed, as a ship started to shoot up from the depths, rising and rising, water flowing in thick rivers over wooden beams and ropes and planks, before the water finally lost its grip and the ship leapt to the surface before it gently glided across the lake.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>As it approached, a handful of people leapt onto deck and started working the sails and rudder, steering the ship towards a bank before bringing it to a stop and dropping the anchor.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>It took a few more moments of busywork, before a plank was lowered and the passengers started disembarking. They were still to far away to make out details. Maggie could only make out their silhouettes, the last of the daylight now fading, all of them looking broad shouldered and heavyset.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>It was only as the group approached the gate and stepped into the light spilling from the castle that Maggie could make out the reason why. All of them were wearing heavy coats with dark fur around their collar that bulked up their silhouette. The man in front on the other hand was wearing a coat of silvery fur, that matched his own, short silvery hair. He seemed to be about as tall as Dumbledore, though his clothes made him look a bit more squarish.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>He and Dumbledore exchanged pleasantries, but again Maggie found herself more interested in the students following him. She counted only eleven, five witches among them, and they looked a lot more exhausted than the Beauxbatons had. Maybe just a longer journey? Or maybe traveling by ship just was a lot less relaxing. One of the girls did look a bit green around her face and was leaning against a tall boy with neatly combed hair.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Another girl was studying the environment intensely, dark brown eyes flitting here and there, for a short moment even meeting Maggies before moving on. Then there was a boy with severe eyebrows that looked a bit bleary eyed, standing just behind his headmaster.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“… Victor, come along, into the warmth – you don’t mind Dumbledore? Victor has a slight cold…” she heard Karkaroff say before leading his students into the castle, as the Hogwarts students suddenly seemed to forget about their manners and the whispers started.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Was that really him?” - “No, can’t be, right?”</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Maggie looked to Ginny.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“That was Victor Krum,” she heard the witch whisper in awe.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Right. The Durmstrang Champion,” Maggie mumbled under her breath, while Ginny still stared after the foreign students. </em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>Then Neville piped up from behind them.</em>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <em>“Who is Viktor Krum again?”</em>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, we finally get into the meat of Goblet of Fire, and we'll get too meet a lot more Durmstrang students soon enough. DAME can mean Lady, but in German it's also the name of the queen chess piece. 'Mist' is a very mild swear in German, directly translated as manure.</p><p>(Also, humans are terrible at estimating the size of flying objects or animals, so the true size of that carriage only becoming clear as they land seems more plausible and interesting to me.)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. The Triwizard Champions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Maggie meets a few other Germans from the Durmstrang delegation, finally manages a talk with Moira and makes a bet with the Carrows.</p><p>Oh, and someone put Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Long chapter: Despite my editing, this one still ended up at well over 6k</p><p>There is a tiny bit of German dialogue at the beginning that I left untranslated, as it isn’t important to the story. For those interested there are more explanations at the bottom.</p><p>(As a reminder, I’m not writing out accents. Just like McGonagall is assumed to have a Scottish accent, everyone else can be assumed to have accents appropriate to their home country.)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maggie had to endure a lengthy explanation about the quidditch star when they were finally allowed to return to the Great Hall, before everyone separated to go to their House table, while Ginny slowed to walk past the Durmstrangs that had yet to sit down.</p><p>Beyond the change in decorations, Maggie also noticed that the meal plan was notably different from the welcoming feast, the tables boasting a variety of dishes that seemed to come from all over the continent – of course, the usual stuff was still there as well, but Maggie also spotted quite a few things she knew from home and even more dishes and delicacies she didn’t.</p><p>Even if she had gotten somewhat used to the British Cuisine, she still felt her mouth water at the thought of the food she had missed since moving here.</p><p>Her eyes quickly found Serina and Neal, who were already talking in hushed tones about their newest celebrity. Maggie made to sit down across from them, when she noticed her roommates sitting down. She hadn’t yet managed to talk with Moira alone and stopped in her movement.</p><p>“Um, can we - “ but Moira had stood up again was now walking to the other end of the table, leaving her and an equally frustrated Becky behind. Her roommate looked after Moira, then gave Maggie an apologetic look</p><p>“Sorry Maggie.” And Becky followed after her friend, as Maggie slumped down onto the table, letting her head sink down to the tablecloth that had been brought out for the special occasion.</p><p>She felt someone pat her back and rolled her head to the side to glance up. Drew had taken the empty space beside her. “Don’t worry about it.” She turned her face back into the darkness between her arms, barely listening to the other’s conversation.</p><p>She felt a bit more movement as Drew scooted closer and sat up to give him a <em>look</em>, but quickly noticed the students in scarlet red approaching the table. The Durmstrangs had decided to sit with the Slytherins this evening.</p><p>“Can you…” Drew asked, Maggie nodded and scooted a bit to the side as well, as a tall girl with jet-black hair sat down next to them. Neal and Serina took that as cue to stop their discussion and instead examine the newcomers.</p><p>The girl just quickly looked around herself, “Hi,” before she turned to the other side were another Durmstrang had sat down and started talking with him.</p><p>“Hach, endlich mal eine Bank die nicht hin- und herschwankt,” the girl said.</p><p>“Hast recht, Naddi konnte sich kaum auf den Beinen halten. Und ich kann kaum drauf warten, wieder in ‘nem richtigen Bett zu schlafen.”</p><p>Maggie listened in as they complained about their journey here, for a moment wondering if she should introduce herself. Then she noticed the other’s had gone silent and were looking at her.</p><p>“Maggie?” Drew asked. Right. They didn’t speak German. </p><p>“Hast du die Uniform der Franzosen gesehen?” the girl continued now.</p><p>“Well, what are they talking about?” Drew whispered to her. </p><p>“French uniforms-”, Maggie mumbled. Wait, no, what was she doing. She shook her head, this was stupid.</p><p>“Ähm, Tschuldigung?” She pushed Drew aside and addressed their guests.</p><p>“Yes?” the girl answered and looked at her. She had a long, straight nose and brown eyes.</p><p> “Niemand sonst hier spricht Deutsch, also, ähm, könntet ihr…” She asked awkwardly.</p><p>“Oh klar, I mean, sorry,” the girl looked around, “that was rude of us, wasn’t it?” The girl switched to English, and Maggie suddenly felt self conscious about her own language skills at hearing the other girls accent.</p><p>“Wait, you don’t sound British,” the boy asked her, “where’d you learn German?”</p><p>“Ich komm aus Hennef, bei Bonn,” she started, then remembered her friends, “sorry, I mean I grew up in Germany, I just recently moved to England.”</p><p>“Oh, so which school did you go to?” the boy asked, “Nebelfeld, Mondsee -” “Come on Toby, she’s clearly a falcon,” the girl</p><p>“Yes?” Maggie said, surprised at the statement. How did she know?</p><p>The girl smiled at her and offered her hand. “Franziska Ziegler, from Würzburg, but I usually go by Franzi. I almost went to Falkenstein myself, actually, but my uncle got me into Durmstrang last minute.”</p><p>“Right, um, I’m Maggie,” she clumsily introduced herself and looked to her fellow Slytherins, who proceeded to do so as well. </p><p>The boy introduced himself as Tobias Block. He had grown up only a small trip from the Brocken where his family had lived for centuries.</p><p>“It’s a lot less impressive if you live there year round, if you ask me,” he commented, “of course, the May Night Celebrations are fun, even if the muggles make things a bit more difficult nowadays.”</p><p>Now that they had all gotten to know each other, the rest of the Slytherins took over the conversation and Maggie had time to look around the Great Hall a bit more, her eyes quickly ending up at the front of the hall.</p><p>Four more chairs had been added to the teachers table, though Maggie didn’t know who the other two guests would be.</p><p>“I still can’t believe Karkaroff made us sail the ship all on our own,” Franzi complained, just as Maggie found the Durmstrang headmaster at the table. </p><p>Serina looked wide eyed.“Wait, <em>you manned that ship?</em> That’s so -” “- awesome,” Neal said, “I didn’t know Durmstrang taught sailing!”</p><p>Tobias rolled his eyes. “It’s the school ship. We mostly use it for shorter trips, except for the end and beginning of the year.. But then we have a full crew, not just us nine, so I still can’t tell you why Karkaroff thought that was a good idea. Victor actually took an unplanned dive into the Atlantic on the way here because of a mishap with the sails. You should have seen Karkaroff’s face. Good thing flyguy is also a great swimmer.”</p><p>Maggie listened in on the side, but now saw the other empty seats being filled by two men she didn’t know.</p><p>“Who are they?” she asked Drew and pointed towards the unknown guests. </p><p>“Must be the other judges?”</p><p>He squinted his eyes. “I think that’s Barty Crouch? He used to be very important, with persecuting D.E.s and all that. I’m pretty sure he was the head of the DMLE”</p><p>“The other one’s Ludo Bagman. Retired quidditch player, but he still has a lot of fans. Quinton could probably give you a whole lecture about him,” Neal added. “I’ve heard he has bit of a gambling problem, though, and supposedly was caught hanging out with some few shady types a few times.”</p><p>“Well do you know why Crouch’s so infamous?” Serina asked way too joyfully.</p><p>Maggie shook her head. Serina gestured her to lean closer.</p><p>“He spent almost a decade hunting dark wizards and D.E.s. Some even thought he might become the next Minister of Magic. And then, when You-Know-Who disappeared and they rounded up his allies, well, Barty Crouch’s own son was apparently one of them himself, you know, a <em>death eater</em>,” she whispered the last word like it was something dirty. “Of course, after that no one trusted him anymore, and he lost his job as Head of the DMLE and any chance of ever becoming Minister of Magic. Not to mention the enemies he made in certain circles of society that loved to take him down a peg.”</p><p>“His own son was a – D.E.?” Maggie asked, narrowly avoiding yelling the word out loud. “So who was his son?”</p><p>“Barty Crouch, <em>Junior</em>.” Serina leaned back, clearly enjoying the attention. “He named his son after himself. My mother says he was always a bit big-headed, a bit to sure of himself. So his enemies really pounced when they finally got some dirt on him. Anyway, his son died a few years later, but of course everyone still remembers.”</p><p>Maggie looked back to the teacher’s table, ignored Hagrid making eyes at the Beauxbaton Headmistress and focused on the other guests. Bagman and Crouch. And she wasn’t the only one looking.</p><p>“So those are the <em>unbiased</em> judges, huh?” Franziska said with calculating eyes. “A washed up quidditch player and the infamous Bartemius Crouch.”</p><p>“If you want to bow out already, I’d be all to happy to take your spot, <em>Zicklein</em>.” Tobias teased.</p><p>“Träum weiter, <em>Blöckchen</em>.” </p><p>-</p><p>Dumbledore made his announcements regarding the tournament and revealed the Goblet of Fire that would chose the school champions. They continued the conversation with their guests. Serina was very smug to find out that she had been right, after all – a few of the Durmstrangs came from very old and well connected wizarding families, and one of them had taken the title in last years dueling competition. </p><p>Still, looking around it was very clear that Viktor was the big star right now, with students from all houses trying to get a look at him and a few more brash ones even coming over to ask for autographs. </p><p>He looked still a little bit ill, and Maggie wondered if it was the cold, the unwanted attention, or the fact that Draco Malfoy seemed incapable of shutting his mouth around the famous quidditch player. <br/>At one point they heard Draco proclaim that he entered his quidditch team as one of the youngest seekers in a long time.</p><p>Drew snorted when they overheard that. “His dad bought his way onto the team by giving all of them racing brooms. And he still only caught the snitch once so far, despite his father throwing all of this money behind him.”</p><p>But eventually, the feast ended and Maggie was reminded of her earlier plans when it became time to return to her dorm. </p><p>Right. </p><p>The Apology.</p><p>She was the first to enter their room this time, and she wondered if that was on purpose. After all, Moira had avoided her for most of the day.</p><p>With a sigh, she flopped onto her bed. </p><p>If she had just hidden that stupid book better. She rolled to the side and slipped her arm under her pillow to pull out the guilty tome. Maybe she should’ve just gotten rid of it.</p><p>Even the very limited information inside could be dangerous in the wrong hands, she knew. If a Death Eater got his hands on it, who knows how that would change things.</p><p>Dangerous information. But still. </p><p>Information that could be useful.</p><p>She flipped open a random page of the book. There was nice photo of the four champions in more formal attire, each with someone on their side. A text identified the scene as occurring just before the Jul Ball. Victor Krum and a dark haired Girl in a blue dress. The beautiful French girl from earlier, Fleur Delacour accompanied by some other guy. Harry Potter and another girl that looked Indian. And Cedric Diggory with a Chinese looking girl on his arm.</p><p>This wasn’t exactly world changing information, right? At best it would put her ahead of the curve when it came to gossip. She wondered if she should read further, <em>just to make sure</em> the book didn’t contain dangerous information.</p><p>Maggie slammed the book shut and groaned. She was making excuses. Second Rule of Time Travel. Don’t attempt to change what has already happened. Don’t risk making paradoxes.</p><p>She shouldn’t have that book.</p><p>But it was also her best proof that everything that happened to her wasn’t just something she made up. She couldn’t destroy it. She just had to hide it better. </p><p>Maybe even ask a teacher for advice? Someone who would know about those things.</p><p>She heard someone approach her door and quickly slipped the book back under the pillow and sat up. She would take care of it first thing tomorrow, she promised herself.</p><p>Becky entered the room first, “… can’t believe <em>Malfoy</em> got to sit across from Viktor Krum, and we barely got a good look at him.”</p><p>She noticed Maggie and gave a silent greeting, as Moira followed not far behind. “Yeah, that little ferret …” </p><p>She trailed off when she looked at Maggie, then rolled her eyes and moved towards her bed.</p><p>“Um, can we talk?” Maggie asked, unsure how to start this conversation.</p><p>“I don’t know. Do you <em>want</em> to talk?” Moira said in a cold tone and crossed her arms.</p><p>“Moira.” Becky chastised her friend and gave Maggie and encouraging smile.</p><p>Maggie swallowed.</p><p>“I just … sorry, I, um,” despite having spent most day thinking over what words to say, she suddenly felt tongue-tied. She huffed, and before she could get caught into her nervousness, she burst out: “I wanted to apologize!”</p><p>Moira leaned back and raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say a word.</p><p>Maggie swallowed again.</p><p>“I … I haven’t been a good friend these past weeks. There was a lot going on, and I guess the twins didn’t help - “ she stopped herself as she saw Becky slowly shake her head behind Moira.</p><p>“No, sorry. I just haven’t been a good friend. I shouldn’t have taken out my frustrations on you. That was wrong, and I’m sorry for that,” she said.</p><p>“Okay,” Moira said, “anything else?”</p><p>Maggie bit her lip. Right. The secrets.</p><p>“There are some things that I can’t – that I’m not ready to tell anyone. I know you don’t like me keeping secrets, but I – I can’t tell you. Not now. Not yet.”</p><p>Moira’s expression stayed unreadable. She looked towards Becky, who now gave her some very pressing looks. The other witch sighed.</p><p>“You attacked me <em>over a history book</em>,” she accused.</p><p>“It’s not a history book,” Maggie clarified, “but I also <em>can’t</em> let you read it. I’m sorry I overreacted. I shouldn’t have left it lying around like this.”</p><p>“And that’s fine,” Becky interrupted, “We’re allowed to have secrets.” She looked  pointedly at Moira. “But you know you can trust us, Maggie, right? I’m not gonna tell.”</p><p>Maggie smiled slightly at that.</p><p>“You’re not allergic to ghosts.” Moira stated.</p><p>Maggie hesitated, then shook her head. “No. Touching ghosts is bad for me, but it’s not an allergy.” She didn’t say anything else.</p><p>“It’s dangerous, those secrets you keep.” Another statement.</p><p>Maggie opened her mouth, then closed it again.</p><p>“Not as long as they <em>stay</em> secret, no.” </p><p>The sentence hang in the air for a moment.</p><p>“Dumbledore knows,” Maggie added, hoping that would help.</p><p>Moira snorted, “That isn’t nearly as reassuring as you think it is.” </p><p>“Well, it certainly can’t be worse than everything that happened at this school over the past few years,” Becky said, “Last year, our teacher was secretly a Werewolf, and we had a Mass Murderer break into the school. You’re not secretly a werewolf, are you?”</p><p>Maggie laughed as the tension suddenly broke at the absurd question. “Nah. I’m not secretly a mass murder either, last I checked,” she answered, “seriously isn’t Hogwarts supposed to be safe or something?”</p><p>“The Safest Place in all of Britain,” Moira intoned, getting into the joke, “unless your a student here. Or a Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, I suppose.”</p><p>“Mass Murder, Werewolves, anything else I need to look out for that the brochure didn’t mention?” Maggie joked.</p><p>“Well, there’s no quidditch this year, so you dodged the possibility of cursed bludgers,” Becky began, “and I guess staying away from twins is a good advice. You already know the Carrows, but the Weasleys aren’t much better, and they might just get you with one of their <em>pranks</em>. They like to target us Slytherins.”</p><p>“Weasley, like Ginny?” Maggie asked. </p><p>“Her older brothers, Gryffindors and way to proud about that,” Moira said. “Of course, Malfoy is his own warning, but he’s usually too busy feuding with Potter to care about us third years. Oh, and the Forbidden Forest, of course, all kinds of nasty stuff in there.”</p><p>“So there’s a reason it’s <em>forbidden</em>.”</p><p>“It’s mostly just the centaurs, I think, they don’t like wizards entering their reservation.” Becky mused.</p><p>“Oh, also, I think there’s some kind of death maze on the third floor or something? There’s a whole corridor that’s off-limit and a few upper years say it’s because it’s still dangerous.”</p><p>“And don’t forget about the Whomping Willow. It looks harmless enough from far away, but that thing can mess you up nicely if you get too close.” Moira cut in.</p><p>“I guess Moody has been very thorough about the Black Lake, hasn’t he?” Maggie added.</p><p>It felt good, talking with them normally again. But then the moment ended.</p><p>“I – can we be friends again?” Maggie asked.</p><p>Moira looked abashed, but nodded.</p><p>She sighed, “Maybe I was bit harsh as well.”</p><p>“It’s okay.” Maggie answered quickly, “Let’s just forget about the whole thing, okay?”</p><p>“Okay,” Moira gave her an uncertain smile, but Becky seemed to glow at the reconciliation.</p><p>“Group Hug!” she called, gripped Moira and threw them all onto Maggie’s bed before the others could protest.</p><p>After they had disentangled themselves again, they talked about the guest students, grilled Maggie about the two she had met, and wondered who would enter the competition.</p><p>They talked deep into the night, until they became too tired and Maggie fell asleep quickly, feeling a lot lighter than yesterday.</p><p>-</p><p>The next day was a Saturday, which meant that people had all the time of the world to observe who did and didn’t enter and speculate about whose names would be called out this evening. </p><p>The Great Hall had already been redecorated for the Halloween Feast, including live bats that were now roosting in the rafters and gigantic pumpkins that everyone suspected had gotten a healthy helping of magic.</p><p>At breakfast, Ginny watched the Durmstrangs throw their slips of paper into the Goblet one by one, before settling at the house tables and going about their breakfast, without any clear order or hierarchy. Viktor Krum, she noted, was the last to put in his name – and unlike everyone else, he only did so <em>after</em> he was finished with breakfast, leaving the Great Hall immediately and ignoring the stares of his fans.</p><p>The Beauxbatons arrived late, and formed an orderly queue in front of the Goblet of Fire, putting their names in one after the other, before settling down at the Ravenclaw table again.</p><p>Of course, then there were her idiot brothers that tried to circumvent the age line, only to end up with some truly impressive beards, almost on par with Dumbledore’s, and making the whole hall break out in laughter.</p><p>Then Angelina Johnson put her name in, to the applause from her House. And over the rest of the day, it seemed as if almost the entirety of Gryffindor’s seventh year decided to put in their name, as well as a few sixth years. Slytherin wasn’t far behind in numbers though, even if Ginny never learned if Warrington really put his name in. A handful of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws rounded up the Hogwarts selection, and now each House had their own favorites to root for this evening.</p><p>With the excitement around the Triwizard Tournament and the sudden arrival of an international quidditch star, Ginny had forgotten about her worries for the last few days, but now that they were waiting again, her worries came back.</p><p>With nothing to do but wait, Ginny wondered if she should try and check out the Slytherin situation once more. Ron and Harry being useless shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Hermione hadn’t had any new advice either – only repeating that it could just be stress and culture shock, instead of anything nefarious. She also seemed way more preoccupied with her <em>Spew</em> thing and only asked if Ginny thought that Maggie might make a potential recruit, at which point Ginny had left again.</p><p>From what she had gathered, the situation had only worsened since then, with Maggie getting into a fight with her roommates. Ginny had yet to find out what that had been about, as Becky wouldn’t tell her.</p><p>Maybe a bit of fresh air would help, she thought and made her way onto the Hogwarts grounds. The quidditch field stood proudly in the distance and for a moment Ginny felt sad that it would stay empty this year. She pondered if she should try and convince a prefect to let her into the broom closet. Flying would definitely take her mind off of things for a while.</p><p>But then, in her experience Prefects were more likely to cause problems than actually be helpful. She couldn’t help but think of Percy, who was now always sticking around Crouch and had basically divorced himself from her familiy. But that wasn’t her problem. Percy had made his choice, and it had nothing to do with her. After giving a last longing look at the stadium, she wheeled around, and almost ran into another student.</p><p>“Gah!”, the girl said, and while Ginny managed to catch herself and swerve to the side, the other girl was less fortunate, teetering for a moment before losing her balance, her arms full of parchments now strewn over the muddy ground. </p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t see you.” Ginny quickly apologized to the girl she now recognized as Becky Knowles. She dropped down to help gather the school supplies, as Becky sat up and took stock of herself.</p><p>“HEY! What did you do!” another voice now called out, and Ginny looked up to see the new girl run over, wand in hand, looking less than happy with Ginny.</p><p>“It’s okay, just a stupid accident.” Becky quickly defused the misunderstanding.</p><p>“Are you okay?”, Maggie asked Becky after a short look at Ginny, who was now holding the dropped parchments. Becky nodded. “Might have a bruise or two, but everything else seems fine.”</p><p>Maggie stepped closer and helped pull Becky back onto her feet. Ginny handed her back her stuff. “Sorry, again.”</p><p>“It’s fine, I’ve just been a bit distracted.” Becky mumbled. She didn’t seem fine, though.</p><p>“Are you… I mean, I don’t want to pry, but…” Maggie asked, apparently picking up the same thing. Then she looked at Ginny like she didn’t know what to make of her.</p><p>“Hey, Ginny’s cool, okay?” Becky said. “And thanks for asking. I… um … can we walk for a bit?”</p><p>Ginny and Maggie exchanged a look and nodded, then followed Becky as she led them further away from the school. It took a few more moments before the witch began to talk.</p><p>“You’ve noticed that everyone getting into bets around the Tournament, right? Even Serina’s gotten really intense, thinking her <em>superior knowledge</em> will give her an edge.”</p><p>“Oh, she probably can’t a hold a candle to my brothers. Apparently Bagman has set up a betting ring, but he still avoids them for some reason.,” Ginny said.</p><p>“Is that even legal?” Maggie asked. Ginny shrugged in response. “Probably not. Would explain why he’s avoiding Moody as well.”</p><p>“Right, Bagman, so everyone’s completely focused on the Tournament now,” Becky said, but didn’t elaborate.</p><p>“And?” Maggie asked.</p><p>Becky bit her lip: “Nothing, just an observation.”</p><p>Maggie furrowed her brows at the non-sequitur.</p><p>Ginny sighed. “Is this about the Carrows?”</p><p>Becky swallowed and nodded, eyes staring forwards.</p><p>“Okay, spill what did they do?!” Maggie asked, now fired up again.</p><p>“It’s not anything, just – they made a few mean comments, just talk, you know, but it’s still so <em>frustrating</em> that I can’t do anything about it, not with Snape as our Head of House.”</p><p>“So what about Moira? She’s usually the first to come to your defense, isn’t she,” Maggie asked.</p><p>“Yeah, but with everything, I didn’t want to stress her out about this, okay? It’s not really a big deal, just a few <em>meaningless</em> words,” she said, “but I always feel like there should be <em>something</em> I can do, some way to change things up.”</p><p>“Do you want me to sick my brothers on them? They’re always down to prank some Slytherins,” Ginny offered.</p><p>“Don’t be crass. I don’t want to start a <em>war</em>, Ginny!”</p><p>Ginny shrugged, “I mean, I know a thing or two about pranks as well, growing up with those two.”</p><p>Becky shook her head, “A prank won’t solve anything.”</p><p>They had reached the lake by now and were following the coast line.</p><p>“What about a bet?” Maggie suddenly said.</p><p>“You want to make a bet with me?”</p><p>“No, don’t be silly. <em>You</em> will make a bet with the <em>Carrows</em>. Let them make a promise to back off if they lose, and make the whole thing public so they can’t just pretend it didn’t happen when they do.”</p><p>“<em>If</em> they lose, Maggie, and why would they even accept anything I offer them? And what would we even bet on?”</p><p>“As you said, right now, <em>everyone</em> is in a betting mood. And everyone is betting on one thing, and one thing only -”</p><p>-</p><p>“So let me get this right. You want to make <em>a bet</em> about which House will represent Hogwarts in the Tournament. If you win, me and my sister will leave you alone for the rest of the year. But if we win, we not only get to continue as we are, but we each get a favor, that we can use whenever we want to tell you to do something for us?” Hestia summarized, looking skeptical.</p><p>Becky exchanged a look with Maggie who nodded. They had found the twins in the Slytherin Common Room, and were now facing each other in front of the fireplace. Blaise Zabini was sitting in an armchair and watching the exchange keenly.</p><p>“Um, yes. That is the deal. I win, you leave me alone. You win, you get your favor. I think that sounds fair, doesn’t it,” Becky said, forcing down her nervousness.</p><p>“No it doesn’t,” Flora stated, narrowing her eyes at Maggie, “you’re giving us a clear advantage aren’t you, you only choose one House, while we get three.”</p><p>She fixated Maggie with a look and walked forwards, “So what’s your gain in this, <em>gloves</em>, huh? You both are clearly trying to pull <em>something</em> here.”</p><p>“Don’t look at me. I’m just applying <em>all</em> of my classes. And I think the odds are fair enough. You get three Houses, but Becky gets to <em>choose</em> the most likely. And with all the precautions from the teachers, neither of us will be capable of manipulating the outcome.”</p><p>Maggie smiled at the twins, who both frowned at her, and stepped back to talk between the two of them, as Maggie stepped closer to Becky again.</p><p>“And you’re absolutely <em>certain</em> this will work?” Becky whispered. </p><p>“Is Trelawney a true seer or not?” Maggie whispered back, “It will work.”</p><p>The twins returned. This time, Hestia was the one that spoke, the frowns now replaced with matching smiles. “Since you seem so confident, why don’t we up the stakes, <em>Alster</em>. If <em>we</em> win, you’ll have to do everything I do for a whole day.”</p><p>Maggie <em>knew</em> she would win. But she let herself think for a moment. Being to certain would look suspicious, after all.</p><p>“I’m not sure…” </p><p>Hestia stepped closer. “Well, if you’re too <em>scared</em> of what I’ll do to you…” </p><p>“I’m not scared of you,” she said in a low tone, not breaking eye contact.  “Fine,” she raised her voice, “If you two win, I’m yours for a day. And vice versa, I’ll get a <em>full day of bossing you around</em> if me and Becky win. Does that sound like a deal?”</p><p>She stepped back and held her hand out. Hestia didn’t hesitate to take it. Then they waited for Flora and Becky to do the same, before they split up again.</p><p>“You wanna be the impartial party, Zabini?” Flora asked towards the dark skinned wizard who had watched the whole thing with amusement. “Make sure everything’s above board?”</p><p>“Oh, gladly, if everyone is okay with that?” he looked to the group. Becky nodded and Maggie decided to trust her friend’s judgment. “Okay, carry on then,” he smiled widely and sat down again.</p><p>“So, what House are you gonna bet on, Mudblood?” Hestia asked with a laugh, “Slytherin? Gryffindor?” </p><p>“Hufflepuff!” Becky said, then repeated with more confidence, “the Hogwarts champion will be a Hufflepuff.”</p><p>The twins looked confused for a second, then broke out in laughter, “You know, if you <em>want to lose</em>, sure, make it easier for us, bet on Hufflepuff!” Hestia half laughed. </p><p>For a moment, Becky looked uncertain, but then doubled down. “Oh, don’t worry, <em>Carrots</em>, I know exactly what I’m doing and I can’t wait to see your stupid faces when you realize this,” she said, with more venom than Maggie had ever heard in her voice.</p><p>Then Becky turned on the spot and stalked away quickly, Maggie behind her. Only a few steps out of sight, Becky suddenly slumped against a wall, and the fake confidence disappeared, as Becky took a few deep breaths and clutched her chest.</p><p>She gave a nervous laughter. “I can’t believe we just did this. Me, challenging the Carrows, <em>calling them names</em>!” </p><p>Maggie snorted. “You called them <em>Carrots</em>, that’s not even a swear, that barely qualifies for an insult.”</p><p>“Well, I panicked. You know how stressful that was? I thought I would break down any minute and just run away. Still, it felt good holding all the cards for once, didn’t it?”</p><p>She took a few more deep breaths and swallowed. “And you’re absolutely <em>certain</em> this will work? What if we’re wrong about this? What if isn’t a Hufflepuff.”</p><p>“It’s gonna be Cedric, don’t you worry. And if it isn’t, all <em>you gave away</em> was a favor, okay? This will work out brilliantly, I just know it. Five more hours, and you won’t have to worry about the Carrows for the rest of the year.”</p><p>“But what about you? You promised Hestia <em>a whole day</em>.”</p><p>Maggie rolled her eyes. “I’ve been through worse. And <em>when</em> we win, I’m gonna need your help to figure out how to best make use of that day, you know.”</p><p>Maybe it was a bad idea, using future knowledge like this. But Maggie figured that her presence had already disrupted whatever would have happened with her roommates. A small bet couldn’t hurt now, right? Why not use her secrets for something good for once.</p><p>And Becky was right. It <em>did</em> feel good to have all the power for once.</p><p>-</p><p>Moira was leaning over the table and rubbing her temples. </p><p>“I can’t believe this. I leave you two alone for <em>five minutes</em>, and you come up with plan that has more holes than this piece of Swiss cheese?” she said, and pointed to a cheese plate for emphasis.</p><p>“I’m pretty sure it’s actually <em>Dutch Cheese</em>,” Maggie quipped, “and you really don’t need to worry so much, the bet is clearly in our favor.”</p><p>“<em>One out of four</em> are not <em>favorable odds</em>, Maggie.”</p><p>Maggie decided to ignore that and started putting food on her plate. “They aren’t <em>terrible odds</em> either.”</p><p>Moira swiveled to Becky, who put her hands up. “Look, I trust Maggie on this. She got the tip from Trelawney herself.”</p><p>Moira turned back to Maggie with narrowed eyes, as Becky continued.<br/>“And if – I mean, <em>when</em> this works out, you won’t have to worry about defending me against the Carrows as much, so this is for your good as well, Moira.”</p><p>“Since when do you believe in divination?” Moira questioned Maggie, but Becky answered first. </p><p>“Since she’s been taking classes? You haven’t seen Trelawney, but I tell you, she <em>is the real deal</em>. So we really don’t need to worry about this.”</p><p>Maggie pointed to Becky, “What she said!” and went back to her supper, not concerned as she already knew the order of events. “Come on Moira, it’s <em>Halloween</em>. Enjoy yourself, this is supposed to be a feast, not a – um, <em>corpse feast</em>, or whatever you call that.”</p><p>The table looked at her with confused faces. Clearly that hadn’t be the right word.</p><p>“<em>Corpse Feast</em>?” Neal said with a pale face.</p><p>“You know, the kind of thing you do before a, um before burying someone, someone who died? Don’t you have those here?”</p><p>They still looked at her funnily. “I don’t think we do?”</p><p>“She means a <em>funeral feast</em>,” a voice said from behind them, Franziska, who nodded at Maggie and moved further down the table,  carrying a plate full of delicacies. </p><p>“Oh, like a wake,” Becky called out with clear relieve.</p><p>“Um, yeah, what did you think I meant?” Maggie asked.</p><p>No one answered but everyone looked a bit awkward, even if Maggie still couldn’t decipher what they could possibly have thought she meant.</p><p>“So, you think Diggory’s got this?” Serina changed the topic. </p><p>“I never said anything about Diggory,” Maggie lied.</p><p>“Please, if it’s a Hufflepuff, it’s gonna be him.” Serina countered. “I mean, for you sake I hope you’re right, but Warrington isn’t a slouch either, and with Gryffindor throwing their whole House at it they’ve got the numerical advantage here.”</p><p>The conversation continued and Serina soon returned to her favorite topic, the other schools. <br/>Maggie learned that Karkaroff had a clear favorite in Viktor Krum, though Bagman expected the dueling champion Anna Benedykta Gyllenstierna to pull through instead, as he believed her to have a more well rounded skill set. </p><p>Of course all of the Nine had some kind of accomplishment or special talent that convinced Karkaroff they might prove worthy of being the Durmstrang champion. The underdog seemed to be Nadja Zibert, a Slovenian witch and the youngest in the group, as she had only started her sixth year.</p><p>From Beauxbatons, there were three candidates that everyone kept their eyes on, Fleur Delacour, Aart De Vries and Pasquale Fabre, each of which had already made a name at their school. Unlike Karkaroff, Madame Maxime played her cards close to her chest, not revealing any preference.</p><p>The feast seemed to take a lot longer than usual, and eventually even the novelty of having live-bats flying through the rafters wore off as everyone only waited in tense anticipations fort the next point of order.</p><p>Finally, the plates were cleared, signaling the feast was officially over and the champions would soon be declared. Dumbledore stood up and the Hall quieted down a bit, as Maggie watched the reaction of the other judges. Headmaster Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked equally tense, while Ludo Bagman beamed and smiled into the room. Bartemius Crouch, on the other hand, barely reacted and looked a bit absent-minded, despite the excitement permeating the room.</p><p>“Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision,” said Dumbledore. “I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions’ names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber” – he indicated the door behind the staff table – “where they will be receiving their first instructions.”</p><p>Dumbledore proceeded by extinguishing the candles above their heads, plunging the hall into a gloomy semidarkness, which made the blue flames burning in the Goblet seem only brighter, flickering and sparkling above the stone vessel. For a few minutes, everyone waited in tense anticipation. Maggie gave a glance towards the Carrows. Hestia’s face seemed glued to the flame, but Flora glanced over to her and made eye contact for a second, smirking before she turned back towards the main event.</p><p>Suddenly, the flames flashed scarlet red, and a piece of parchment shot out into the air. Dumbledore caught it and held it in front of him to read it in the Goblet’s light.</p><p>“The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum!” he announced, which was soon followed by a wave of applause as Viktor stood up and walked slowly to the front and right, before disappearing through the door.</p><p>Somehow, Karkaroff seemed to be loudest of them, his words of encouragement audible over the roar of applause. It took a few minutes until the clapping and chatting died down and everyone started waiting again.</p><p>Like before, the flame flashed red, Dumbledore caught a piece of parchment and held it up to read.</p><p>“The champion for Beauxbaton is Fleur Delacour!”</p><p>Again, people started applauding, as a beautiful young woman stood up from the Ravenclaw table and walked to the front in quick strides. As the girl curtsied in front of her headmaster, Maggie could get a better look and recognized her from yesterday. The blue, dancing lights on her face made Maggie think of a siren waiting in the depths of the water – except she doubted any siren would be as beautiful. But then the girl disappeared into the sideroom as well, and the silence returned as everyone waited on who would be the Hogwars champion.</p><p>She suddenly felt someone take her hand and looked to the side. Becky. The other Slytherin looked more anxious than she had ever seen her. Maggie squeezed her hand in silent support.</p><p>Then finally, a red flash, a parchment, and Dumbledore’s announcement.</p><p>“The champion for Hogwarts is Cedric Diggory!”</p><p>The Hufflepuff Table erupted into celebration, as Cedric made his way towards the teachers table, a brilliant smile on his handsome face. Maggie was pulled into a hug by Becky, who couldn’t stop grinning, while most of her table. “You were right, you were actually right,” she mumbled into her hair, while Moira shook her head, “Don’t ever pull something like that again.”</p><p>Serina gnashed her teeth (Maggie assumed she had just lost a bet), “Okay, remind never to bet against her,” while the Carrows faces had gone pale and soon started a heated debate between them, occasionally glancing towards Maggie who had a smug grin at her victory.</p><p>But as the celebrations died down, Maggie couldn’t fight the feeling that she had forgotten something. Something important.</p><p>“Excellent!” Dumbledore exclaimed, “Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real - “</p><p>Dumbledore stopped, as the Goblet flashed red for a fourth time.</p><p>A piece of parchment flew into the air, and was caught by the headmaster.</p><p>He stared at the name for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, as Maggie finally remembered what she had forgotten.</p><p>There were <em>four</em> champions.</p><p>And as her mind put together what that meant for her, Dumbledore cleared his throat and called out the name on the piece of parchment.</p><p>“<em>Harry Potter</em>!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The <em>Brocken</em> (a.k.a. Blocksberg) is a mountain in Germany that has a lot of witch legends surrounding it. Most importantly the believe that witches would gather there the night of April the 30th (“Walpurgis Night”) for unholy ritual and a witch dance.</p><p>For this story, most of Durmstrang's students come from Central Europe and Scandinavia, but they do accept students from all over Europe. (e.g. Bulgarian Viktor Krum)</p><p><b>German Dialogue</b> (For those who are interested):</p><p>Franzi and Toby talk about finally being on steady ground again and briefly mention the French uniforms, before Maggie awkwardly informs them that no one else here speaks German and they switch to English.</p><p>Maggie gives the place she grew up in and the biggest city nearby when asked about her accent.<br/>“Zicklein” is a bad pun on the name Ziegler and an insult that could also be translated as “young goat”<br/>“Träum weiter, Blöckchen” → “Dream on, (cute, little) Block”</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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